Cruel Moon
by Shadou-sama
Summary: Shapeshifters and vampires have become legal citizens and Kai's not too happy, especially when he's forced to exist with Rei in a world he would rather destroy.
1. Chapter 1

Cruel Moon  
Chapter One  
by Shadousama

"_In an unprecedented move, the United Nations has decreed that those suffering from the various forms of the "lycanthropy" disease and vampirism are indeed humans with all the residual rights and freedoms. Following this decision, Japan, France, Canada and Great Britain have declared their full support. _

"_Every where in these four countries, shapeshifters are in the throws of celebration as this will be the first full moon that they do not have to fear discrimination or, in some areas, the threat of extermination. _

"_The United States and Germany are still in session regarding the decision, but experts are expecting their full support as well, despite the US's notoriously conservative leadership. _

"_A new moon has risen over the world. Nothing will ever be the same."_

The news turned to footage of celebration of various packs as I scowled. The announcer was right. Nothing would ever be the same ever again, not with those things on the loose and no checks. Did those politicians really think that the vampires and shapeshifters would play nice with the police? Did they really think that they would just bow their heads and follow human laws? Ha! They may have been human at one point, but that changed when they were infected.

I shook my head. Whatever the United Nations had to say wouldn't stop me from hunting them. My Browning wouldn't see its retirement so soon. I'd only have to be more discreet and choose my victims more carefully. Just like Boris taught me.

Rei crossed the living room, taking my attention from the TV. It had been a little less than a year since Takao had defeated BEGA and Shadra had defeated the other Masters, ending up in a coma. Instead of going home to China, Rei decided to finish his education in Japan, attending the same school that I do. It just seemed like a logical thing for him to move into my apartment.

Not because I might miss my former teammates.

"Where are you going?" I asked when Rei grabbed his keys off of the small table beside the door. "The moon raises in an hour." And there was no telling how many of those creatures would get the fool idea of transforming in the middle of the city. But that wasn't an appropriate thing to voice anymore.

"I--" Rei started, before his face fell. "I forget to get something from the store. It'll just take ten minutes, it's only two blocks down."

"Hurry."

He nodded and left the apartment, shutting the door behind him a little harder than necessary. I spared a glare in his general direction, but turned back to the TV.

Maybe I should have given him a gun, just in case. Something to defend himself with. No, he was only going to be gone for ten minutes, surely he wouldn't have any need of it. He probably didn't even know how to work it properly.

"Stop being so jumpy," I told myself. "It's a full moon just like any other... except you're not going out there tonight."

Damn, now I'm talking to myself.

"_In related news,"_ the reporter moved on to say, "_the largest anti-preternatural group, the Human Defense Coalition, has filed a protest to the new ruling in Japan and France. Clay Baldwin, their spokesperson, claims that preternaturals such as vampires and shapeshifters are too dangerous to humans for such an action."_

I nodded, then felt stupid because there was no one to see it. It's too much like talking to myself. I blamed Takao. Yeah, Takao's the cause of all my troubles.

While I didn't belong to any anti groups – it would be too detrimental for my cover, not because I was too young... really – I definitely wasn't against them either. They were way more practical than the pro groups that thought vampires and shapeshifters were just big cuddly things with fangs. And claws. And could ravage a man without breaking a sweat. Do vampires sweat? It doesn't matter. Besides, sometimes they even paid me for keeping down shapeshifter populations and I could keep my hands off of the money Gr—Voltaire gave me.

There were just a few little problems with them, like with –

"_Others groups are also protesting the decision, some even violently. At 3:00 PM in Chiba City, the well-known Vampire Activist Sonoda Hijo was shot three times on his way to the Center for Vampire Rights. Police suspect..."_

– that. Idiots. What dunce shot a man in the middle of the day? It made the preternaturals seem like the victims and everyone who is against preternaturals like fanatics.

I turned off the TV and walked over to the window. With Gr – Voltaire's money, I had been able to get an apartment with a great view over Ginza district – not that I ever looked out much – that was a 2LDK, a two bedroom apartment with a living, dining room and kitchen. It was a little far away from school, but only two stations away.

This would be the first full moon that I could remember that I wouldn't be loading my Browning and taking to the streets. There wasn't any sense in driving people to the preternatural's corner of the argument like the idiot anti-preternaturals. Yes, the mean old wicked hunters ruthlessly murdering the innocent, harmless little furry shapeshifters that also happen to rip innocent people to pieces. Whatever. If people wanted to whine and coo over the little monsters, fine, but don't stop me from eliminating a threat.

Well, okay, it wasn't fine to me. Shapeshifters and vampires are not misunderstood. They are not emotional, lusty, repentant and oh so tortured souls. Well... they're lusty and I'm not sure about the souls part, at least with vampires. But really, in the end, it didn't matter what they were and what they weren't when they were trying to rip out your throat.

Rich pinks, dark purples and navy-black colour of the night tinted the sky. The moon rose, pale and silver over the modern buildings.

Rei hadn't come back yet.

The thought filled me with dread. Those creatures were now prowling the darkened streets and no matter how good Rei was at martial arts, he couldn't compete with natural killers with fangs and claws.

Maybe he had just been held up at the market. Maybe he just couldn't find what he wanted in a few minutes and when he finally found it, he noticed that it was already dark. Perhaps he was just calling a cab instead of risking the walk home or something.

Yeah... Rei wouldn't be stupid enough to get killed by one of them.

Out of all of my former teammates, I found that Rei was the one I could... relax around best. With Takao, I always had to worry about how I was going to beat him or how he was going to beat his other challengers. Max was just to optimistic and cheerful to the point of grating my nerves. I couldn't live with him for almost a full year without doing something crazy. Kyouju... maybe. If he was too wrapped up in some project to pay me any mind.

Tala use to be my friend, sort of. As much as anyone could be my friend or his. An alliance, I guess I would call it. During the last World Championships, our relationship solidified a little bit but that's all gone now. He crossed a line when he sided with the Masters at the Prairieland Tournament, and no matter how much I know about why he turned out the way he does, I just can't... I just can't be comfortable around him anymore.

Rei, on the other hand, was below me in beyblading skill but he could handle his own in a battle. He didn't need to wait for some great inspiration to strike or anyone to figure out the solution for him. He was optimistic like Max, but more in a laid back kind of way. Doesn't force it on me.

And he's not damaged. Not damaged like...

Striding through the living room and the small hallway attached, I went into my bedroom and sat down at the desk. Rei would be back at any moment, I was sure, and I still had homework to do.

More precisely, the History of Vampire and Shapeshifter Suppression unit of my World History class. Sometimes, I wondered if it's just the world screwing me over or if I'm just obsessed that these things keep finding me. Looking back at the question, I decided that it's probably the world screwing me over. What can I say? It was those damn education reforms.

I flipped open my textbook and my notebook, glancing over my essay topic. _In a seven paragraph essay, defend the United Nations and the Japanese government's decision to make shapeshifters and vampires legal citizens, including why other preternaturals, such as spirits and the Fey, were not included._

See? Proof! It's a freaking History class, not Social Studies!

I pushed my textbooks off my desk and glared at the bare wood.

--

That stupid kitty clock of Rei's struck midnight from the bedroom next door, and I jumped before cursing at myself. I closed my notebook on a half finished outline, one that insured to haunt me for as long as I live with the big fat 0 in big red marks.

I couldn't help but stare at it. This was how I was going to be spending my full moons from now on. Getting angry at stupid homework and jumping at stupid clocks. This was my life, forgetting about the monsters roaming the streets. I couldn't help but stare.

I shook my head to get the silly little thoughts out. Maybe I'd better just write some little piece of trash of world love and all that or ask Rei –

Wait a second.

Rei hasn't come home yet.

I peeked around my drawn bedroom curtains. The full moon sat high in the sky and its face mocked me. Mocked me because the only person close to... because... just because. The moon isn't a very nice inanimate object. I pulled around and slammed my fist into the wall.

The sharp stab of pain that ran through my arm woke up my mind, or more precisely to the "Why the hell did I just do that?" thoughts running through my head. How could I do something so childish over nothing? Whatever.

I crossed the room, opening the top drawer of my chest of drawers. I kept all my valuables in the top drawer. Probability-wise, it would be the last drawer to be searched since burglars tend to start on the bottom to save time, not that we got robbed a lot but I wouldn't want any petty thief to get their grubby little hands on my beloved Browning. Not for sentimental reasons, but that they could shoot me if I caught them then. Really.

I kept it in a locked box. A safe would be, well, safer but I don't any room to keep anything like that hidden in my apartment. After extracting a key from my back pocket, I unlocked the box and pulled out my semi-automatic. I tested the weight and almost smiled. It still fit nicely in my hand.

Shapeshifters were legal. I couldn't hunt them – no, I couldn't get caught. It would have been folly to haunt them every full moon, but in emergency circumstances...

Yes, my Browning belonged in my hand. Setting it down on top of my chest of drawers, I extracted the black leather shoulder holster from the box and fastened it on slid my gun into place and pulled on my coat instead of my scarf, the long black and red one. My favorite one that hid a weapon better than any of my others. Just in case, I hid a few extra silver knives and a few extra magazines of bullets.

I was going to go find Rei, bar any shapeshifter that got in my way.

Who says I'm not a nice guy?

--

I stalked down the darkened street, glaring at everything that I came across, which wasn't much. I had checked all of the grocery stores within the district (Rei wouldn't be stupid enough to go to any one he had to take a train to get to) but had come up short. I had even checked out the local hospital, our apartment again, and the police stations. Rei was no where to be seen.

After looking through the lobby and bar of the Imperial Hotel, I took a left to look at the last place. Hibiya Park. 160 000 square metres of grass, bushes and trees, perfect for a pack of shapeshifters if they were stupid enough to transform there.

Still, the shapeshifters had used the park for their pre-full moon celebration. Along the lake shore were the remaining vestiges of the celebration, surrounding a small dais. It looked nearly skeletal in the dark of the night.

_Crack!_

I whirled around, pulling out my gun, my heart beating madly. I looked over the area thoroughly, watching for any movement, but only the moonlit trees met my gaze. Behind me, the waters gently lapped at the stone shoreline. It could have just been a branch had fallen into the waters. Or it could be a shapeshifter.

I glance at my watch, and breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn't be a shapeshifter for long. Moving as carefully and as smoothly as I could manage, I started searching the festival tents. I came up to the first one, and, with my gun held ready, squeezed between the table and the tent flap over, but before I could even pull myself free, I started.

What was that? My head turned so fast that I could hear a small _crick!_ in my neck. I had heard something. I stilled myself, trying to hear as best as I could.

There! A moan.

"Rei?" I called out. A scream followed my call.

I pulled myself back out of the table and hurried over to where it had come from. Past the last tent and through the line of trees, I broke out onto another path, and from there another path and another. And in the field that lay beside that last path I saw him. Rei.

When I saw him, I nearly dropped to my knees. Instead, I brought my Browning back up and fixed my coldest scowl on my face, before coming to his side.

Something went through me, some kind of emotion, but I didn't know what. It barely seemed there.

Rei's lithe naked body spasmed as I watched, before coming to lie still on his back with another moan. I lowered my gun to aim it straight to his head, a near point blank shot. Half of his head would be blown off if my index finger tightened enough around the trigger. My scowl deepened at the thought.

His eyes fluttered open, and for a moment he stared at my shoes. Then his eyes traveled upwards, growing larger in surprise, before finally narrowing in on my beautiful semi-automatic pistol.

"K...K... Kai?"

I cocked the hammer, a superfluous action that none the less got the desired results. Rei blinked before pulling himself backwards. His shoulders began to shake. He tried to scramble to his feet but in his haste he was merely tripping over himself.

"Shapeshifter."

--

_To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

Cruel Moon  
Chapter Two

Rei stared at me, his bottom lip starting to tremble. I clenched my teeth together in a snarl. My finger twitched on the trigger, not hard enough to fire but hard enough to entertain some fantasy of actually pulling the trigger.

He had stayed in my house, _lived with me!_, had shared food and—and things with me. I think he even borrowed my razor once, which had been weird enough when I thought he was human. Had he managed to keep his dirty little blood off the blade? Not once in the previous year, or the three years before when we had been teammates and rivals, maybe even friends, did he even suggest that there was anything _peculiar_ about him. All that time I have been living with a shapeshifter!

Yes, sweet images of the mess Rei's body would be if I just pulled that trigger.

But no, something inside me couldn't. Later, I would demand to have it dragged away through town and shot, but for now it seemed to control me. I pulled back my Browning, aiming it to the heavens above instead of at the were-whatever in front of me.

He looked relieved for a second and opened his mouth to say something, but what, I never found out, for at that moment he must have noticed the steel cold look in my eyes.

"We," I started, my voice low and dangerous, "are going to head back to my apartment. _You._" Rei practically flinched at the word, as if imagining that I would demand that he drown himself in the toilet or something. Idiot. "_You_ are going to go straight to your room and pack your things. Then _you_ are going to leave with your things and never, ever try to come back."

Even though I had frightened him out of his wits earlier, Rei's features pulled together into a cold expression of resentment that resembled my own. This had been something that I had liked about him, that unlike the others who would be sputtering or threatening me with death, all causing a scene, he tried to glare me down.

"Or," I continued, as I didn't want to be bothered with any macho alpha male crap that shapeshifters liked to pull, "I could shoot you right here and be done with it. Understand?"

He didn't look happy about it, far from it, but he gave a stiff nod. He pushed himself onto his feet and only then did I remember one particular thing about shapeshifters I have come to hate.

"And put some bloody pants on!"

---

I stood in the door of my apartment as the cab driver loaded up the last suitcase into the trunk. We had agreed, I somewhat more reluctantly than he, that when he had found a new place to stay, I would send the remainder of his things to him. In the past year, he seemed to have collected too many things to fit into his set of suitcases.

Rei came back up the stairs and down the open air hallway, coming right to me, before pulling pulling something out of his pocket and chucking it at me. Shapeshifter skill or no, I caught it easily.

Oh good, I thought to myself as I felt what it was. I wasn't going to have to threaten him for my key.

I turned my back as the cab drove away, locking the door behind me and retreating to my bedroom. Without anyone there to see, I could flop down onto my bed for some well earned sleep.

My dreams were blurry and vague and I woke up several times during the day. At one point, I became convinced that thieves were going to try to murder me for my lamp as I slipped into consciousness. Thankfully, I had already locked my gun away.

I lied under my beige (yes, beige, black attracts the heat too much in the summer) comforter on my twin sized bed, unable to sleep after that dream, until the shadows lengthened in my room. I stared at the shadowed carpet and I wasn't even sure that I even blinked for hours.

Usually, Rei would be watching TV right then, some imported Chinese cartoon that I couldn't understand and pretended not to want to. He would also have been cooking udon noodles for the two of them, his eyes continually darting back to screen so much that I would be surprised he didn't again hurt himself... or the noodles.

His eyes... really, I'd be disappointed if he wasn't a werecat.

When he had first moved in, I had tastefully placed the TV in an ebony and mahogany entertainment system case with all the other electronics. It had also been placed against the wall running perpendicular to the kitchen space, as that had been the only open space. That didn't stop Rei from trying to watch his show while he cooked. He just dashed from one end of the house to the other in between cooking steps and commercial breaks with the sound turned as loud as he could without attracting the attentions of the old hag next door.

After Rei had scolded himself so badly that he had needed to be taken to the doctor because something so "utterly shocking" had occurred in his show and he had forgotten to set the pot of boiling water and cooking oil down before dashing off, I had invested in a TV stand with wheels so that Rei could reposition the TV whenever he cooked. The only thing that the stand had room to hold beside the TV was an old picture of Team BBA after we had won our first World Championships. Rei made me put it up, really.

I pushed myself out of bed and wandered to the living room. The last few rays of sun shone through the back kitchen window. I didn't feel like eating, even though I hadn't eaten anything all day, so I went to the front door to check the mail since it should have arrived by nightfall.

Stretching my arm out so that I wouldn't have step outside on the concrete in my bare feet, I flipped open the lid of the mailbox nailed up beside my apartment door and my hand enclosed around a small, soft piece of paper.

As I shut the door and looked at it closer, I noticed that it wasn't the regular stationary paper that was so common everywhere in the world these days, but rice paper that had been commonly used before the American invasion sixty years ago. My name, written in elegant brush strokes, decorated the one side of the paper. The funny thing was, my name was usually spelled in hiragana letters; I don't even know the proper kanji. I'm not sure my parents (or gr—Voltaire) had even written my name in kanji characters. But whoever sent this had spelled my name with a kanji meaning party, meet and join.

Weird.

I sat down on the couch and flipped it over and groaned. The whole freaking thing was in kanji! I groaned.

Originally, kanji had been the only lettering system used in Japan exactly like the Chinese system today (and then too, but that's reflexive). As the number of women writing found that kanji was pretentious or something to that effect, they invented a whole new lettering system to help simplify it – hiragana. Kanji didn't cease to be used, oh no, it had evolved to include the hiragana characters and in fact, became so much easier to adapt to the Japanese language because of this. Katakana would be later invented when the people had to start dealing with foreigners outside of Asia, starting the need for using foreign words and needed a system to be able to write them in. In modern times, Japanese was written in a combination of the three systems.

But this letter... It was like asking an American student to comprehend a Shakespearean play or even a book like Canterbury Tales, written in an even more medieval and obsolete language than Shakespeare.

After a few minutes, and a few trips to the dictionary to look up the rarer characters, I managed to piece it all together.

_Would you believe the lovely little golden-eyed kitten that we found today? Your little kitten was just wandering around the airport, without his little master. What could we do but pick your little kitten up? _

_Sadly, we do not think it wise to return your little kitten to you at this time. You have been a very naughty little boy. You spill the blood of our people like it was nothing more than soured milk. But to us, you have to understand, you have done nothing less than pour barrels of the Emperor's own sake into the harbor. _

_As with anyone who had committed such a crime, you must be punished. You now have a choice to make. Either you surrender yourself for a public execution, which is the only punishment fit for your crimes, or your little kitten will take your place in an even crueler experience. Make no mistake: your little kitten may only take your place on that one day. We would still come calling for you. But why should we spill so much? That is, after all, what you are known for. _

_We will come for you at midnight. If you are not there, we will take it as a refusal and your little kitten will be no more... in the five or six days it will take us to take extract retribution from him. Oh, and don't take that as a loophole, that you could just fly in and save him with your tiny Western weapon. We assure you, it is not._

At the corner of the page, two characters read: "ryou-ou" – Dragon King.

I crumpled the rice paper into a ball and chucked it at the door. Ridiculous! _Your little kitten..._ I don't have a cat! Never mind one that would be at the airport! Then, my stomach dropped, leaving an uncomfortable emptiness. Rei could have been at the airport, trying to fly back to China on short notice. It would have only been too easy to pluck him from the crowd. Those vampires were going to practically crucify him...

Then I snorted, and forced my thoughts away from that line. As if I was going to agree to an execution just to save some bloody shapeshifter! They had to be out of their bloody minds!

They probably were, I reminded myself. I have never had dealings with the Dragon King or his court, but I knew that they were a bunch of Japanese vampires. Old, too, and pretentious, judging from the letter. As if there were vampires who weren't pretentious!

Well, they could try to take me out. Try being the imperative word. I doubted that they would succeed, but nonetheless, I shouldn't make it any harder for myself than I have to. I grabbed my jacket and my favored gun with extra magazine clips and strapped and pulled them on.

As I passed through the living room, my eyes fell upon the old picture of the team. I stood at the back with a confident smirk, while Rei stood to the side of the two more rambunctious members of our team, grinning like the cat who caught the canary and the Friskas. I stopped, staring at those big, golden eyes. Had he been a shapeshifter even then?

No, I thought as I remembered the day we had been trapped in the underground railway in Europe. The werewolf Lupinex (otherwise known as Howling) had attacked us with his beyblade when Rei, in all of his cool confidence, had merely flipped a silver dollar before somehow summoning a new version of his bit-beast, Silver Driger, which the werewolf bit-beast couldn't take. All shapeshifters were terribly allergic to silver, some of the more sensitive even reacting to silver alloys.

Oh, and I don't believe a word the Dark Bladers said about losing their humanity because they were hit by lightning.

Rei, the least of my pains in my neck, had always had those awfully feline eyes, the ones that terrified his competitors when they retracted in anger. I liked those eyes. Rei wasn't just a shapeshifter. He used to be my friend, and if only for that, I had to help him one last time.

The Dragon King was an idiot if he had convinced himself that he had only left me with two options. I could just surrender or I could try to run, trying to hide my tracks. But with my fame, I wouldn't be able to keep hidden for long and this vampire moron could just swoop in for the kill. He mustn't know me very well.

See, I knew a man so deep in the preternatural world that it had turned him insane. A man who saw bit-beasts not as friends and partners like most of my teammates and competitors but as blood thirsty weapons of mass destruction that could be even more potent than the United States' nuclear missiles.

Voltaire Hiwatari.

---

I glowered at my grandfather – no, not grandfather, Voltaire, from across the table while the old man looked smugly back at me. Oh, he must be loving this. I absolutely refused to give him the smallest bit of satisfaction of seeing me embarrassed, no matter how much or how long this male stripper were-whatever humped my leg.

The stripper stepped back to give a little dance for the overly aroused female audience. Oh, thank God.

Why Voltaire Hiwatari, wannabe world dominator and business tycoon, wanted to meet in a preternatural strip club was beyond me. The old man's insane! Or perhaps he was finally coming out of the closet, telling the entire world that he liked men that could meow and slice him to teensy little bits. Insane, definitely insane.

Half an hour ago, I had finally managed to pick up the phone to call him, or rather his secretary who could patch me through to him. Voltaire might not have cared normally if I had asked him for help, but these were extenuating circumstances. Someone was threatening my life and no matter how much he hated me, he couldn't let his one and only heir be destroyed. When I had picked up the phone, I knew I was getting myself into something bad. If I had known I would end up here, I probably would have attempted a kamikaze type rescue mission.

For some reason, it was really starting to look good.

"You know," the werecreature practically purred into my ear, back at my side once again. Joy. "You're kind of cute."

Okay, I did not just hear that! I... Am... Not... Cute. I flexed my arms as I rearranged my arms, showing off my rather impressive muscles, while giving him my best 'I'll rip you to pieces if only you give me a reason' glare.

Instead of looking reasonably cowed, like any human besides Takao and the old man would have, the stupid thing flopped into my lap, flinging his arms around my neck. Voltaire grinned wickedly at me, and the stripper gave a coy smile. Okay, this has gone far enough. I shoved him off of my lap, and his eyes widened in surprise as his arms flailed. His head just narrowly missed cracking against the round table.

"Grandson, don't be so rude." Voltaire raised a finger in a lecturing manner. "I thought I had taught you better than that."

Right... like he had ever taught me anything but to obliterate the enemy and to obey him. But I did extend a hand to the shapeshifter to help him get up, with a promise of something more than a push if he tried that again. Preferably, once I got my Browning back from the holy item check girl.

The stripper nodded and hurried off, but not before Voltaire slipped a green thousand yen bill into the back of his thong. Involuntarily, I shivered. I really didn't need to see that. I really did not need to see that.

"What are we doing here?" I demanded, looking at him as coldly as I could, while trying to get that image out of my mind. Possibly more traumatic than anything he had ever tried to pull before.

"Pleasure before business," Voltaire countered, as a new stripper – a young vampire – came onto the stage.

"Business before pleasure." Watching more preternatural naked men prance on stage with the man who was fifty years my senior and was related nervously anticipating the bomb shell that he was about to drop? I knew, I just knew he would try to torture me to the best of his abilities. Apparently, I had underestimated him.

Voltaire sighed, seemingly in distress. "You can be open with me, Grandson. I know the sort of thing you've been getting up to with your team--"

"What are we doing here?" I interrupted between clenched teeth. To make those kinds of insinuations!

"Yes, indeed," he said, before asking, "Just why are we? You haven't bothered to enlighten me."

Excuse me for wanting to talk about my life and death situation in private!

Instead of commenting on that, I jumped into the story. "Today, I received a rather strange letter from the Dragon King, an ancient vampire and his friends who are based here in Tokyo."

"I know," Voltaire replied as I resisted rolling my eyes. Of course he did. "But please, do go on."

"This Dragon King had written me because he wants my execution and thinks he has the means to bargain for it." At Voltaire's questioning look, I explained, "He kidnapped an ex-teammate."

"And if you want to save his life, you have to agree to it," he concluded.

"Yeah..."

On stage, a new shapeshifter had jumped out in a faux-savage manner. One of the women watching shrieked, but quickly giggled it off with her friends as the stripper gave her a "puppy face" look. I resisted rolling my eyes.

Voltaire didn't look at me, but rearranged himself, before replying, "I don't see what this has to do with me."

"This Dragon King thinks that he can outmaneuver me," I said. "But you have more resources in the preternatural world than anyone else in the world. You might just have something to tell me."

I waited, trying desperately not to glare at him but to keep a cool, reassured air about him. Voltaire looked off to the side, down at his nails, at the dancer trying to completely bend himself around a pole; all with a thoughtful expression on his face. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I knew he didn't need to consider anything, he just wanted to make me anxious. Perhaps make me beg. My calm facade nearly broke.

Instead of answering, he stood up and stalked through the tables and up the stairs. Growling, I followed suit. Why couldn't he just tell me upfront? Why couldn't he just ask to meet him at his mansion? Or at his office? Why couldn't he not be an evil, insufferable bastard? Because it was who he was. Damn.

A platform, or what remained of the original floor before the club had opened, ran in an L on the exit side of the Full Moon (ha ha, very funny pun – not). The vampire who had insisted on checking my Browning (damn him) watched us from the check booth for holy items, where the check girl read a book. Voltaire's two werewolf bodyguards stood at attention by the exit. Like I said, he had gotten into the preternatural world deep. Voltaire had ordered them to stay there before the show had started.

He headed for the door opposite the watching vampire and werewolves, which meant that I had to turn my back to three potential threats with almost no way to defend myself. Great, just great. I followed, but only because they wouldn't try anything in front of a herd of witnesses.

Voltaire held the door for me at least, but that didn't assuage my wariness. The old man was planning something... something to do with the tall, geisha-disguised vampire that kneeled in the middle of the room of the traditional designed room. I kept my eyes her knees rather than his face... just in case. Kumino had been a right bastard with too many talents and he had taught me that with vampires I could never be too careful.

"Hiwatari-san," she acknowledged, but otherwise didn't move.

Voltaire, instead of kneeling with the vampire as I had expected him to, moved to stand at the side of the room, but still just slightly behind me.

A soft "nyuu" from behind the woman startled me and my glance bounced upwards into her black eyes. I quickly averted my eyes, but then my body tensed. Lying right next to the sleeve of the vampire's kimono was a sock, pulled onto a foot. Slowly, I moved my body to the side and my eyes snapped wide.

_Rei!_

Bound and gagged, he stared up at me with his beautiful golden eyes, trying to tell me something, warn me. But what was he doing here? Never mind, I told myself, as I tried to dash forward –

_CRACK!_

Black spots swam before my eyes. I fell to my knees and only through sheer force of will did I not fall even further. Something pricked my neck, but I could hardly care. It didn't feel big enough to be fangs, nor did it feel like it could be in the rest spot.

I scrambled to the wall, pressing my back on it, the one that no one was on as I took in the sight of both Voltaire, the vampire, and Rei, plus two other vampires that must have been hiding behind the door. Sloppy, I silently berated. They must have been the ones to hit me. Voltaire wasn't strong enough, even if he had been in the right position, but he was strong enough to use the empty needle in his grasp.

Wait... needle?

My hand flew up to the back of my neck to find the pinprick of a wound, regardless of how useless it would be. I wouldn't be able to tell what that bastard had put in me just from that.

"Things are really going to be different, now," Voltaire said, smirking as he pointedly held up the needle. "You're not going to get in my way, you're not going to stop me, and you're definitely not going to save the day anymore. After all, what shapeshifter would?"

Shapeshifter? Who was a shapeshifter? There were some werewolves outside, and some weretigers or rats or something, but not in... oh. The geisha vampire looked me over, a strange light in her eyes that I didn't like, while Voltaire smirked.

"Isn't this just so... poetic?" the geisha gushed. "A preternatural predator, who's loathing runs deep in his veins, now joining the his foes in ways even deeper than that."

No... No. This couldn't be true! This couldn't be true! This couldn't be true!

"Our Lord and Master will be very pleased at this," the geisha assured Voltaire, fully turning her attention away from me. She didn't even tense her muscles as if waiting for an attack. As if I was no longer a threat.

"As long as he keeps his side of the bargain," Voltaire warned, his attention, too, away from me. The geisha vampire just smiled condescendingly at him before standing up to join the older man. Voltaire smirked, as he took the geisha's hand. "New moon. By new moon, every thing will look so... new."

I pushed myself to my feet, leaning heavily on the wall. I tried to keep my eye on them, but my head kept falling and my eyes kept coming to stare at the tatami mats. Rei, from where I could see him out of the corner of my eye, didn't even look at me but at the vampires and gr--Voltaire.

As the geisha tittered away, again condescendingly as is the way with vampires, Voltaire led her out of the office. Leaving me alone, leaving me to be a... Against my wishes and my nature, I choked.

"Kumiko-sama," one of the vampire bodyguards called. "What should we do with the boy and the kitten?"

The boy...

"Leave them, and come with me," the geisha ordered them, twisting in Voltaire's grip to look at them. "It's not like he's a threat to us any longer."

They laughed all the way out of the room, shutting the door firmly from strange eyes.

It was like the last of my strength followed them. I fell to my knees, and then onto my hands. My eyes squeezed shut, desperately trying to keep the tears from welling in my eyes. I wasn't a threat, I wasn't a threat. They don't need to watch their backs, they don't need to execute me. I wasn't a threat. Just a kitten without claws

I choked again at that thought and my arms quivered. My eyes opened a fraction, and I couldn't even make out the mats clearly. I've never, never ever not been a threat. But now I was... Now I was...

Jean-clad knees entered my vision and I bit my lip to keep from gasping. A soft hand stroked my cheek, encouraging my face upwards. The tears welled up in my eyes again so that I could barely see Rei's golden eyes peering at me.

I must look so weak.

He must have wiggled around in his binds before managing to untie himself altogether. Rei could escape. His fingers touched my cheek, like a gossamer's web or a swan's downy feathers, and I nearly shivered despite myself. They traveled down my face, unto my neck and under my shoulder. My knees shuddered and finally gave out. I fell into his lap, but his arms grasped around me tightly.

For the first time in many years, I cried.

---

_To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

Cruel Moon  
Chapter Three

I laid in my bed, staring up at the ceiling. The soft glow of morning threatened the gloomy grayness of my room and the gentle movements at the other end of the apartment crashing like elephant feet in the gloomy silence. Overall, I was in a very gloomy mood.

Somehow, Rei had managed to drag me from the strip club and back to Ginza district. I'm sure that I looked a bloody mess, blubbering like a baby. It was humiliating... it was inexcusable! Totally inexcusable to be caught in public in that sort of state, especially after all the trouble I go through for my reputation.

I pushed myself up to a sitting position. I could still hear Rei moving around outside my bedroom, probably in the kitchen. When I walk out that door, he'd expect that just because I had one done what I had done that I would blabber all my secrets out to him and then we'd laugh and bake cookies or something equally as foolish. Even worse, he'd look at me with those golden eyes full of pity. Pity! I resisted the urge to throw my nearby textbooks at him... through the wall... across the hall... where he would smack them down without effort because he was a shapeshifter. Whatever.

"_A preternatural predator, who's loathing runs deep in his veins, now joining his foes in ways even deeper than that."_

The words struck my heart, a pain that made me gasp. Right, I was a shapeshifter too now, thanks to Voltaire. I chuckled, deep in my throat without any humour. He had been in on the plan from the very start. No, not in on it. He had arranged the whole thing. And I had fallen for it, fallen for it hard, and now whatever stupid reckless plan Voltaire had come up with, I wouldn't be able to stop it. He would have made sure that a shapeshifter couldn't.

I pushed myself to my feet. I had been arrogant and foolhardy, exactly what had lost me the match with Johnny, with Brooklyn, and what had turned me away from the Bladebreakers to join a man that I despised. I had thought that I had outsmarted the Dragon King, and now I was a shapeshifter.

On my desk, sitting innocently on my essay for History, was my gun, my Browning. Almost irreverently, I walked over to it and picked it up in my hands. My gun, my Browning.

If I had kept my gun in possession, would things have turned out differently? Would I, instead of meekly taking what Voltaire had delivered me, have blown his head apart?

For the past years, longer than I care to remember, my Browning had accompanied me everywhere and had saved me from the monsters too many times to count. When a werewolf had tried to kidnap me to hurt Voltaire, I had shot him twice in the head with my Browning. When the Dark Bladers had wanted to make Kyouju-burgers, I had it ready to draw for when they let down their guard. When Leo the robot had tried to kill Takao to become a real boy, my Browning had been itching to take out Leo's circuitry. When Brooklyn had removed us from this reality so that he couldn't lose, I had been ready to blow his stupid little genius brains out. When Shadra had tried to take revenge for my betrayal, without hesitation I shot her three times in the stomach before she could even release her first spell. Whenever I went out on the prowl, my Browning always had been in my hands or in my shoulder holster, both in prime position.

My gun had saved me so many times... How could I just give it up to some stupid check girl?

Because I wasn't thinking. Because I had been smug in the fact that I could beat any and all preternatural competitors. I couldn't.

It still fit nicely in my hand, better than any glove that I had ever worn. I checked the clip – yes, still full of silver-plated bullets, the only kind that could wound a non-human creature. Slowly, I raised the gun up...

The door slammed open. I jumped. Something furry crashed into me. My gun went flying.

Damn it, damn it!

I thrashed as hard as I could, better than any human but not for the shapeshifter that was shrieking on top of me. It pinned me against the floor and I stopped struggling as soon as I realized what the something furry really was.

Rei's unbraided hair fell like a curtain around us both. His pupils were barely there he was so angry. I started struggling again. After barely a minute, Rei forced me to settle down again.

"Don't do it," he said with a low growl.

"What?" I tried to reply snarkily as I surveyed my surroundings for any kind of weapons. That damn black hair was better than any black out curtains. "Kill you?"

"Don't --" The word was punctuated with a push at my hands, pinning them to the floor instead of to my chest. His head was merely inches from mine as he whispered, "Kill yourself."

That stopped me, and I ceased. Kill myself?

I hadn't – I hadn't really thought about that, but I guess, yeah, I guess that could have been it. Where had I been raising that gun to? I don't know. I just... don't know.

Slowly, Rei pulled away from me and helped me to my feet. I tried to hide my wince. If I'm never tackled by a shapeshifter again, it will be too soon. I could live without. At least I was pretty good at hiding it.

"Sorry," he muttered before he took a step back. Damn.

Instead of saying anything else, he went over to the foot of my bed and picked my Browning up off the ground, silhouetted by the window. I nearly bit through my lip in an effort not to demand that he not touch it. This was the first time ever that a shapeshifter had gotten their paws on my gun. Oh... second time. Double damn.

"I know... I know you have problems with shapeshifters," Rei said, not looking at me but fingering my gun.

"Yeah," I said. "I do." There wasn't any point to acting shy on the matter.

"But... that doesn't mean that your life is over," he continued. "It's just... your life will be different."

"Obviously," I muttered under my breath.

He must have heard (triple damn shapeshifter hearing!) as he gave me a quick glare. Nothing ferocious, but it made me want to try smiling innocently at him to see what he would do. Somehow, I resisted the urge.

"You're not... You're not with the Human Defense Coalition, are you?" His hands clenched over the steel of my gun.

I shook my head no.

"You just wander around on outside on the night of the full moon with a gun filled with silver-plated bullets?"

"I don't wander."

"You hunt." A cynical smile brushed his lips. He looked away from me. "You hate shapeshifters because of why? They hunt on the full moon? Yet you do exactly the same thing."

"No," I told him. "It's not the same. Shapeshifters kill people--"

"You threatened to kill me! God only knows how many others you actually have killed!"

I snorted and tried to shake my mind off of this asinine conversation. There was no way that Rei could prove what I have done as wrong. They were the monsters, the things that killed just because they thought they could get away with it because of their "condition." Most of them behaved like the beasts that they turned into all the time. Their deaths were no big loss to the world.

In the kitchen, the phone rang. I walked backwards toward the door, ignoring the look he was giving me, turning beyond the door, into the kitchen and picked up the phone.

"Moshi moshi," the other person said, someone that I knew. That's probably what stopped me from immediately replying, "Go to hell."

Rei walked into the kitchen area behind me, and I felt his eyes on my back. "Moshi moshi," I said.

"Is this Kai?"

Is this Kai... They were the ones to call me! "Yes," I said through gritted teeth.

"Thank God," the caller said and I knew it was Max. He was the only person I knew who used such Western expressions. "Takao's been kidnapped!"

I felt like exclaiming but kept it to a mere raising of my brow. Remembering that it was a phone, not a video camera, I said, "Explain."

Rei looked at me questioningly as he came into the kitchen with my gun stuffed into his pocket.

"This morning I came over to study, you know, for this Chemistry test we have tomorrow. He was so worried about it that he even asked Hiromi to help him understand it. Weird, huh? Since he started high school he's been getting to school on time and handing assignments in that actually make sense. I've been sort of wondering if he's been sick." Max said, the words coming out of his mouth so fast that I had trouble keeping up.

"Get to the point," I gritted out.

"Well, Grampa told me that he hadn't even come out of his room for breakfast! Breakfast! So I went in to ask if he really was sick, and..."

After a few moments of silence, I was starting to get bored. "And?" I prompted.

"And he wasn't there! His room was odd, too... I'd never ever seen it like that. It was clean! Takao wouldn't just clean his room and then disappear, would he?"

I thought on that, trying to picture any time that I had seen Takao clean or even not make a big mess out of his hotel room. I drew a big blank. "So you think he was kidnapped."

"Kidnapped!" Rei exclaimed from behind me. "Takao?"

"Shh," I told him and smirked.

Max replied, "Well, yeah."

"When was the last time anybody saw him?"

"Umm..." Some muffled mumbling. "Last night."

I swore mentally.

Some of the things in folklore were true. Getting bitten by a normal wolf could actually turn you into a werewolf. The best way to "humanely" destroy a new vampire without upsetting the family was to bary the corpse face down so that when they woke up, they wouldn't dig themselves up but bury themselves deeper (most hunters wisely didn't tell the families about the starving period). Babies born with pointed canine teeth are bad signs.

However, there were other things that weren't quite true no matter how much people tried. For example, unless one has erected proper warding, vampires could enter homes without being invited. Of course, a lot of things can do that. Normally, I wouldn't just jump from "kidnapper" to "vampire." I might go from "kidnapper" to "shapeshifter" as well... This was a bit of a coincidence, though. Voltaire starts a new scheme, vampires kidnap Rei for him, and they all tried to kill me.

"Can you come to Aoyama?" I asked.

"Aoyama?" Max asked. He sounded hesitant.

"Never mind," I told him. Despite what all the fan girls thought (at least the non-Japanese ones), Takao did not live in Tokyo city but rather in another city in Tokyo prefecture. It would take Rei and I at least an hour, probably more, to even reach the proper ward by train. It would take Max half a day if we were lucky, and we didn't have that much time. "If you hear anything else, call Rei on his cell."

"My cell?" Rei asked. "Why not your--"

I shot him a glare, this time along the lines of, _I own a phone, what else do you want?_ Wisely, he just let it go. I knew he was thinking of his budget (he was only from a small Chinese village. It didn't spell out "loaded" unlike what _some_ of his fan girls thought), but still.

"Okay," he replied and his voice sounded weak.

I gritted my teeth before saying, "He'll be alright."

A soft sigh, before, "Thanks, Kai."

I hung up the phone. I'm not one much for goodbyes.

The black haired shapeshifter leaned against the kitchen, his expression stiff. The sort of expression that seemed to turn up everyday on him when dealing with the other ex-members of the Bladebreakers. "Why Aoyama?"

"It's an upscale neighbourhood with parks, an enormous cometary, trendy cafes, international restaurants, expensive housing with expensive security features..."

His eyes lit up as he suddenly understood. "You think that Voltaire kidnapped him. And you think that he's keeping him locked up in his own home?"

I looked at him, telling him he was correct with a slight nod, before I turned my back to him to walk into my room. If he were going to infiltrate Voltaire's fortress, I needed some a serious arsenal. Unfortunately, I had left my automatic weapons in the other... well, I never had owned them. Never needed to. Japan was exceptionally hard to carry even semi-automatics because of the strict gun laws about self-defense weapons, which pretty much stated 'no way, sucker!' It takes months of paperwork and tests and lectures to even get a sporting license. Of course, money makes everything go faster.

Why do I assume that he is so much more dangerous than blood-sucking demons? Maybe I just knew him to well.

* * *

Like some stupid pathetic fallacy, great charcoal gray clouds covered the sky while Rei and I walked the six blocks from Shinanomachi Station to Voltaire's mansion. Neither of us had talked much on the train or on the walk, but that was fine by me. The first thing I said to him in hours was, "This way," as I pulled him into a small aisle between two large stone walls that separated Voltaire's property from Tohgu Gosho. Yes, he lives next to the Crown Prince. Probably steals the Prince's paper when he figures he hasn't done enough bad things for the day. 

The tricky part would be getting past security, but it's not like I have lived for years in that house. Oh wait, it is. There's a blind spot in the cameras, mostly incurred by the royal neighbour not wanting any of his property caught on tape and partly from my hard work to keep it there.

Once I recognized the large sakura tree in near full bloom that marked the spot, I finally turned to Rei. I motioned for him to jump up onto the stone wall.

"What? Me?" Rei whispered harshly at me. He waved his arm dramatically. "What about those 'expensive security features?'"

"There's a blind spot from there," I pointed to a small chip in the wall, a mark which no one would notice if they weren't looking for it, "to there." I pointed to the other side of the tree. "As long as you don't jump onto the infrared, you should be fine."

He looked at me expectantly, but when I didn't so much as change my expression, he questioned, "Where's the infrared?"

"Just get up there," I ordered, before taking hold of the wall 's top trim. Using that, I could neatly pull myself up. Rei, with his preternatural skills, was able to jump all the way up like a cat. I motioned in a line from the inner side of the tree trunk off into the distance. "There's your infrared."

His eyes narrowed while looking at the area. Then, before I could even blink, he leapt off the wall, landing a half of a metre away from the infrared. On the other side. Then I blinked. He was a good five or six feet from the wall.

Preternatural powers, I reminded myself, before my mind wandered. Am I going to be able to do that? With these powers, I could fight hand to hand with the creatures I hunt. No more praying before I go out at night that I won't lose my gun in a fight, that whatever creature in question wouldn't sneak up on me.

Except I won't be hunting anymore. The new laws have taken care of that.

Rei waved for me to come down and I realized that I must have been just crouching there for a few minutes, thinking. With practiced ease, I jump down and step over the infrared line.

From there, it's just a simple matter of navigating the blind spots found ever so often and avoiding the major traps. Pathetic, I sneered, before biting it back. Best not get too cocky. Voltaire wasn't one to leave his security not updated, not when an enemy thoroughly knows the layout inside and out.

"_It's not like he's a threat to us any longer."_

My hand clenched.

Rei picked the lock of the servant's entrance. A little part of me brightens by the fact that yes, not murdering Rei had been the right choice in the long end. It had nothing to do with... anything else. Silently, I pushed open the door for the three quarter lee-way before it hit the infrared. Rei waved me through but once inside the darkened kitchen, after indicating where he should step over and shooting out all of the pertinent cameras, I let him catch up with me and walk him to another locked door diagonally across from the door behind a large cabinet. Between the two of us, we easily move it aside.

He gives me a questioning look and opens his mouth to ask, but I shake my head at him. Instead of demanding anyway like a few people I know who would have, which is a good thing since I don't feel like explaining, Rei frowns but nods, turning back to his work. It did seem a little anti-climatic to keep a hostage locked up with a simple key lock, but again, who would suspect this particular door? In barely any time at all, that door swings open.

The staircase revealed was the only door that connected to the a secret basement that covered nearly a third of the house's ground floor footage. It's where Voltaire had always kept his more... unusual acquisitions. Unusual meaning illegal, as in kidnap and torture.

The first defense against breach was the hidden door. Most intruders would have thoroughly searched the whole house, but they wouldn't have looked too carefully in the kitchen. Not classy enough, probably. The second defense were the hidden cameras, although like the hidden and locked door, they were easily navigated/taken care of with an extensive knowledge like mine.

The third defense against breach were three locked doors where the only key would be matching fingerprints, eye and voice recognition before opening onto large, heat detecting floors with a series of moving motion detectors. Or, you could just take the secret passage Voltaire had installed to cut down on time.

Before he could step down onto the floor into full view of the cameras, I caught his hand and hit the wall beside the third step from the bottom, and the brick surface pushed away from the surrounding wall and slid up.

"This makes things easier," Rei commented as I pulled him into the plaster-walled passage. From behind him, since the width was too small to stand side by side, I rolled my eyes. Good thing the cameras didn't have sound.

"Just keep moving," I told him gruffly.

The passage ran around the perimeter of the basement, ending at the other end where all the cells were held. Rei's eyes widened as he looked on. I just walked past him, being used to it all after a life at the abbey. Yes, these dungeons were also dank, dark and smelled faintly of oppression and urine.

I started, drawing my gun from its holster, when Rei grabbed my arm. He didn't look at me, or how close he came to death, but stared with dilated eyes at some point I couldn't see. His fingers clenched around my wrist, and I choked back a cry, subconsciously maneuvering the gun in my hand to point near blank at Rei's chest.

"Someone's down here," he whispered.

"Let go," I snarled and prodded him with the barrel of the Browning. He didn't glance down, but I could see it in his face that my gun finally registered in his mind. His grip loosened, but didn't let go. At least it wasn't my gun hand, so I let it slide. "Of course there's someone -- down here. We're looking for someone -- down here."

His eyes narrowed, but not at me. He still stared at that invisible point. "They smell... not human."

Not human? Okay, I have had enough of his shapeshifter shit. I walk forward, wrenching my hand from his grip and held my gun at the ready position. Slowly, with Rei following me around like some sick puppy, I checked each of the cells. There's no such thing as too careful.

In a cell in the middle of the long row, a black pony-tailed figure huddled under a red jacket. "Takao?" Rei whispers, approaching the stall. He jerked back a moment before the figure flew at him, claws flying.

I pulled the trigger. The figure collapsed to the ground, hissing, blood spilling from its knee. Its head raised, growling at me with bright amber eyes and clutching its wound.

"Werewolf," Rei growled. The sound rose up from deep within his chest.

Hmm, must have been a clean shot right through the flesh if it was still alive. The only way for a shapeshifter to survive a silver bullet was if the silver was removed quickly from the wound. It still left a larger wound than lead bullets, but it also continued to burn and healed slower than usual. If it wasn't clean... it nearly brought a smile to my lips.

I pointed the gun at its head. "Where's Takao?" I demanded.

"W-why should I t-tell you a-anything?" the thing stuttered.

Rei wrenched the cell door right off it's hinges and flung it down the hall, barely missing me. It landed hard with a metal crash. For a second, I don't know who to aim at. He pounced on the werewolf, smashing its head against the mucky concrete ground. "Where's Takao?" he snarled. Oh, right.

"He's not here!" the thing cried out.

Again, Rei replied by shoving it into the ground, his fingers curled around its neck. "Where's Takao?"

"W-with M-master V-V-Voltaire!" I think it was going to cry.

"Why did he take him?" I asked before Rei could give it a concussion.

"As a sacrifice," it said. The colour was starting to drain from its face. "He's t-trying to wake up the D-Dark M-Master... with some sort of a-amulet, the Amulet of... of the Risen Moon."

"Dark Master?" Rei questioned. Like the werewolf, the fury drained from his expression.

It nodded it's head frantically, then looked queasy for it.

"Why does he want to do that?" I asked.

"I – I don't know!"

I looked down at its leg. The wound was starting to heal, but I didn't think it had realized that yet. I could simply put a bullet in his head. A shapeshifter couldn't survive that, clean shot or not, but we needed for information. "Where is Voltaire?"

"I don't know! I've told you everything I know."

Rei looked down at it coolly. "There's not a lot you do know, is there."

"Please don't kill me." It looked from Rei to me and back again, his eyes pleading.

If there wasn't anything else to learn... "Lay it down," I ordered.

Surprise and questioning filling his eyes, he looked from me. "Kai..." he said, but there must have been something in my expression, or perhaps the lack of it, that made him follow. He stepped back and I stepped forward into the cell, bringing my gun into position.

"NO!" it screamed, trying to curl into a fetal position. "No! Please don't! PLEASE!"

Calmly, I placed the barrel of my gun point blank between its eyes. It tried to squirm away, but it's knee wasn't healed and he was too deep in shock to get away.

"_It's not like he's a threat to us any longer."_

A shot rang out, a gush of blood splattered against the dirty concrete.

* * *

Rei didn't talk to me on the way home. But this time, instead of the comfortable tension of the situation, it set the fine hairs on the back of my neck up. Why should this silence be anymore uncomfortable than any others I have endured? Whatever. 

When we arrived home, I sank down onto the couch and closed my eyes. I tried to ignore Rei as he paced to the kitchen area, only to turn back as soon as he reached the counter. He leaned against the back of the sofa chair, glaring at me and shaking with barely contained energy. Okay, so my old tactic isn't working so well.

"What?" I opened my eyes and met his glare with my own. His whole body seemed to tense.

"You – You just k--" He stopped, breaking the eye contact to scowl moodily at the ground. Shaking his head, he continued, "Never mind. It's not as if you'd care."

If I did care, that would've hurt. Yet it still stung just a little. I pushed that thought to the back of my mind.

"We have a big problem." Then he rolled his eyes. "Yes, we _both_ do."

As if I had disagreed. Any plot that my grandfather – ugh, Voltaire set in motion became my problem.

"We're both shapeshifters--"

My fists clenched, my jaw set hard and my spine stiffened. "And just what affects us," I spit the next word out like, no, as a filthy insult, "_shapeshifters_?"

He tried to ignore my hostility and answered calmly, "Voltaire is trying to get control over the Dark Master, as in..."

I could tell he was trying to get me to answer; I just continued glaring at him.

"... the Dark Master that controls time, the moon and every preternatural creature that dwells under it."

I whispered, "Shadra."

"Yeah," Rei said. "We have to warn Yukino."

"Yuki," I sneered, "doesn't want our help. He made that very clear last summer."

"But he doesn't know about Voltaire..." Rei trailed off at the nasty look I gave him. "This isn't about Yukino! Or about you! It's about Shadra and stopping Voltaire!"

I don't know what to say that, so I don't say anything. But I still fix him with my nastiest glare. Rei bit back a sigh, and tried to fix a calm look on his face.

"Kai, I never knew that you thought he was so strong," Rei said, trying to look flippant. I sneered at him. "I wouldn't think that you thought he could protect Shadra better than you can. Well, if you're really that confident in his abilities..."

"Fine," I snapped and stalked to the phone in the kitchen.

Among the things that Yuki had left behind when he took the unconscious Time Master away had been Shadra's address book, which included the number for Yuki's personal cellphone. How did I know he had taken his cellphone with him? Well... I just had to make sure we had some way to contact him... Right. Not in anyway a last attempt to insult the boy.

I punched the numbers in and ignored Rei's smug look. Werecat, definitely.

"Moshi moshi, Yuki-_chan_," I said when I heard the click on the other end. Few people have ever affected me so much as this guy. Even back when I hated Takao, he never brought this out in me. It might have had to do with him sneaking into our cabin during the Prairieland Tournament and trying to strangle me, or it might have just been his irritating charm.

"What do you want, Kai-_chan_," the male voice bit out. I could practically hear the sneer on his lips, which brought a smirk to mine.

"Has anyone tried to kill you lately?" I asked bluntly. "I mean, more than usual."

"Besides your irritating presence?"

"Or your body trying to mutiny."

I missed what he said next as the phone nearly fell to the ground as Rei tried to grab it. I pulled it to my other side but I forgot about his shapeshifter speed. I managed to hang on, but Rei had the receiver to his ear before I could do much else.

"Takao's missing," Rei said. "What do you mean, so?"

I wrenched it back, taking advantage of his surprise. "Because this means trouble for you," I told him. "That's why."

"Do you seriously think that I took him?"

"No," I said. "Like you could." Before he could reply and start getting us off topic again, forcing Rei to take another try at the phone for us to get anywhere and perhaps injuring one of the two of us, I added, "But Voltaire is planning to revive Shadra."

A few moments of stunned silence.

"How?"

"Amulet of the Full Moon, or something like that. And before you get any bright ideas, she'll be under Voltaire's control then. That's the bad part." I said the last part slowly so that he could understand. "We think the... revival or whatever is going to be on the new moon."

"When the moon is born again," Yuki said, but I don't think it was to me. Too soft.

"He may or may not be working with vampires." I grimaced, remembering the strip club. "But he'll have the best locaters money can buy."

"We're moving tomorrow, anyway," he replied. "Found a more secure location."

With that, the phone went dead. I resisted rolling my eyes, to just hang up the phone.

"What did he say?" Rei asked.

I said, in a voice barely louder than a whisper, "He's moving her."

"Well that's... good..." He trailed off. He stared intently into my eyes and I wished that he would stop. "She'll be okay," he insisted. "We'll stop Voltaire before he even finds her."

"Whatever."

I went to hide in my room.

_To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

Cruel Moon  
Chapter Four

_Pumping my legs as fast as I could manage, I sprinted down the grubby and darkened street. I could feel it coming, like slime running down my spine. Damn it! I ducked into an alleyway, glancing behind me. The complete isolation rasped against me. I knew what it was like to be alone, completely separate from the people around me. But to see Tokyo's streets completely void of human life? Alone, except for me and It and... _

_Rei! Where the hell was he? Images of the cat-like boy flashed in my head, his blood splattered against a brick wall, face down in typical alley muck, his body not even twitching... I shook my head. We had split up hours ago, in the hopes that at least one of us could find safety long enough to at least come up with a plan. It had followed me. But his safety couldn't be guaranteed, not with Voltaire's little minions scurrying around. The sun was a long time coming and the moon had disappeared for the night. _

_Footsteps echoed through the empty, concrete street. I mentally cursed before taking off down the alley, hesitating only briefly about whether it would be better to take to the roofs. Better not to risk it. Too limiting of my movements and not enough of a handicap against It. _

_The feeling along my spine intensified and I clenched my hands to keep from clawing at it. It had caught sight of me. Have to keep moving, have to keep moving. The alley opened onto another street and he turned right, back towards the direction he had come from. _

_I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I mentally chanted. I couldn't take It on. The only thing I could possibly do against It was to run. And It would catch me. And I will die. _

_I ducked into a different alleyway, trying to calm my breathing. Why hadn't we figured it out sooner? It was so simple! If only they had gotten the name right! It wasn't the Amulet of the Full Moon. It was the Amulet of the – _

"_Boo," a voice said, directly behind me. I jumped a mile high, desperately trying to choke back the girlish scream that threatened to escape. Whirling around, I brought my Browning out of its holster straight into Rei's chest, my trigger finger trembling. Wait... Rei? _

_He smiled at me. "Are you alright?" I nearly dropped my gun as I collapsed into him, hugging him for all that it was worth. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. I was going to die, and he was going to die, and... _

"_I'll take that as a yes..." Rei pulled away, only to then close the distance between us, lips to lips. _

_My gaze slid from his face to over his shoulder, and I tried to warn him. Tried to yell, "It's here!" but nothing came out. Rei casually ignored my distress, murmuring more things that I couldn't make out. Oh shit, I was going to die, and he was going to die, and... _

_Shadowed in the alleyway, the black-haired, red-eyed girl strode towards us. I felt like giggling when I noticed her school uniform complete with the navy plaited skirt. She raised one hand to strike – _

My eyes snapped open, peering to the darkness while my hand fumbled to turn on a lamp. A warm glow filled my bedroom. Nothing seemed out of place. I sank back onto my bed, shoving my damp blankets off of me. Just a dream. A really, really, sweaty dream.

--

A bright, shrill voice brought me out of my trance. "Good morning, Kai-kun!" an entirely too happy girl with bouncing pigtails greeted. I glared at her. Who the hell did she think she was to greet me so familiarly? Oh right, Minami Aiko, president of my official fan club. Yes, really.

In an attempt to ignore her and her two sidekicks, I glanced around the classroom. As always, the other members of my classroom's chapter of the fan club watched and giggled exactly sixty degrees to my left. Exactly thirty degrees to my right, chatting with the other guys in the class to keep them from trying to murdering me with their glares – as if I cared – stood the one person I could tolerate to get me out of such an ambush, although lately that standing was on shaky ground. It didn't matter anyway, Rei was completely oblivious to my faltering temper.

"So, the school festival is coming up..." Minami hinted, grabbing my arm and sitting delicately with her side pressed up against me on the bit of chair that I wasn't occupying. I just stared at the clock, daring it to go faster. I knew what was coming – how could I not? – and the only thing I wanted to do was shove my Browning (which was currently at home, sigh) into her face and scream that if I hadn't wanted to go out with her on Christmas Eve, and I hadn't wanted to go to the Doll Festival with her, and I hadn't wanted to go to the hundreds of movies and dinners she had previously proposed, why the fuck did she think I'd want to go to the school festival with her? "So..." A headache was already forming. "Do you want to go with me?"

Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I pushed her off of my seat. She squawked, waving her arms uselessly before she sprawled across the floor, her uniform's short skirt nearly riding up to show her intimate features. Great, now she was gawking at me. Couldn't she just pull her skirt down and leave me alone? I ignored her and the other classroom students that gawked at me as well, placing my full attention on the chalkboard straight ahead of me.

"Is that a yes?" she asked.

My hands clenched.

"Hey, Aiko-san," Rei greeted, holding out his arm politely to help her up. Damn that idiot! She was begging to be put in that position. Whore. "He's just a bit tired." Don't excuse me! "He's had a... stressful weekend."

"Oh, poor Kai-kun," Minami said, sounding like she was about to touch me again. Note to self: bring knives to school in future. Rei at least knew enough to steer her away from me. A trio of stupid idiots glared at me, and I knew that they would approach me to defend Minami's "honor," but the door slid open and our history teacher, Daisuke-sensei, and a tall man dressed in a suit stepped into the room.

"Good morning, class," she said, setting her briefcase onto the desk in the front.

"Good morning, sensei," the class, except for me, replied, as they hurried to their seats.

"As I told you on Friday, we have a special guest," Daisuke said, motioning to the man standing beside her. The other students seemed confused, but I felt like smirking. Take that, idiotic essay! "This is Mamoya-san, an expert from the Human Defense Coalition. He's here to talk about..." she glanced over at him.

"Safety," he supplied.

"Yes... safety," she repeated. "But before we get to that, please pass your homework essay to the front of the room.

Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it! I had forgotten! Oh wait, why do I care about some stupid essay? I practically threw the papers handed to me to the desk in front of me.

Yes, I wasn't in a good mood. So?

"Oh, and Kon-kun? Did you get that note signed?" she asked as she picked the piles up.

Oh, right, the note. Little Miss Kitty had been late to class on Friday. Instead of detention, Daisuke had merely asked him to get a note signed by his parents since he's usually such a good little boy. By the look on his face, I think that he would've preferred the detention.

"Well, um..." Yay, now I get to watch Rei suffer. "No..."

"No?"

"My parents live in China," he explained. In a town where they only get mail biweekly, yadda yadda. "But maybe Kai could sign it?"

"Hiwatari-kun?"

Damn, why does everyone think that they can just give me cutesy honorifics? The only one I want is -sama!

Wait a second...

"Well, because I live with him."

I resisted the urge to jump over the desks and strangle him. I don't want to be associated with him! I don't want to be associated with anyone! The rumors, by God, the rumors!

"Hiwatari-kun?" Stop with the effing – "Could your parents sign this..."

Glaring at the front of the classroom, I merely said with as menacing a voice as I could get away with in such a setting, "No."

"Are they away --"

"No."

"Are they ill --"

"No."

"Are they --"

For effing sake! "No."

"Why --"

"No."

Just give up already! I could see Rei out of the corner of my eye trying to give me an apologetic look. Right, like he's really sorry. Things were so much simpler on the Demolitions Team!

"Well, alright. I suppose I could let it slide."

Finally.

"But just this once." Daisuke took a moment to shuffle the essays in her clutches, then headed to the back of the classroom. "Mamoya-san? If you'd like to begin."

He nodded, and stepped in front of the teacher's desk.

--

It was something of a blank in my mind exactly why, when my skin was nearly bursting into flames from anger, I had decided to retreat to a department store. There were people! Milling around! Looking at him! And smiling... the horror! The horror.

Sure, this would have happened if I had taken the train home, but at least then I would have the solitude of my apartment to look forward to. But no, my feet had detoured to the SOGO department store located next to the train station. At least though, SOGO usually had a spacious and practically deserted restaurant on the eighth floor. My stomach, although I would never admit it, might be growling even louder than Takao's. Because of that stupid, stupid dream, I hadn't bothered with breakfast and had it really been worth it to make that kid scream and cry from bento torture? I shivered involuntarily as I reached the top floor. Yes, definitely worth it.

"Probably," a lyrical, feminine voice floated. "A very creative use for takoyaki."

My head snapped to the side. In the shop across from the booth, a Japanese woman lazily dressed in a crimson kimono lounged across on a large navy pillow. She smiled and waved her fan at me. "Although that bento would have been a better snack than anything you can find at that place," the woman continued, flicking the fan towards the restaurant. "Your boyfriend is such a wonderful chef."

My hands clenched. "Who the hell," I gritted out, "do you think you are?"

She stood up, walking to the edge of the tatami mats that line her half of the floor. Her fan snapped closed. "The fortune-teller Kurinsan." With her closed fan, she pointed upward. "Can't you read?"

And with a start, I realized where I had ended up. There was a least one of these fortune-telling shops in the larger malls, and there were varying smaller ones around which Minami and her possy had tried again and again to drag me to. Something about showing me our "love" is really destiny. Now they were preventing me from getting my lost lunch replaced? Meanwhile, Kurinsan glided back to her seat.

Glancing back at me, she said, "I guess you can stay there if you want, but sooner or later you're going to look stupid."

Fine, whatever. Screw people! As soon as I turn eighteen, I'm leaving this god damned infested country to live somewhere bearable. Maybe Rei knows an isolated house in the Chinese mountains I could use. Or Tala could tell me – no! I'm not asking anything of that... that... Not going to ask anything of him ever again.

"You're going the wrong way, idiot," she said, her back still facing me. "When you're trying to obtain a product or service, you usually start by entering their store."

I turned my back on her. "I don't want my horoscope. I don't want to get my palm read. I just want to get away from people like you."

"And like him and her and like everybody else. What could it really hurt? Well... maybe your pride."

I snorted and tried to walk away towards the restaurant, or maybe just go to hell promptly instead of lingering on the outskirts. Tried being the operative word. I couldn't move.

"My shop," she drawled, "draws people that need my services to it."

"And the only way to get out of it is to pay you money for wasting their time," I snarled. "You're just a conning witch."

"If it makes you feel better, you don't have to pay."

"What?"

"The information I get from your fortune will be enough."

Whatever. I'd get my stupid fortune told, leave this shop and finally get what's coming to me, my lunch. And she could go touch herself or something with whatever 'information' she gets. She and the rest of the world. Yeah, I do actually read those fan sites!

Kurinsan smiled, not even bothering to hide it behind a fan. Was she really this rude to all of her customers, or just me? She's really starting to get on my nerves. I sat down cross-legged on the pillow across from her, and glared. Glaring is always an appropriate response.

She held out her hand, and I glared at it. See? Works for all occasions. She held it out for several moments, with me still glaring, before she whispered, "This is the part where you place your hand in mine." Like I was stupid. Well, I had a few words for her. But that would be telling. Gruffly, I slapped my hand into hers, and her thumb slipped over the back of my hand.

This is going to end up where she's actually a fan-stalker, isn't it.

"You know," Kurinsan started. "When your friends start to believe that whenever you receive bad news that you'll try to kill yourself, that's a time when you should start rethinking your personality."

"I wasn't going to kill myself," I told her, grudgingly acknowledging that Rei certainly thought that, thus not making her not such a lying, cheating crack pot.

"But he thought you were," she said. "And perceptions are everything."

I snorted. "Only for fools."

"Well, you do seem to be awfully preoccupied by them..." She waved her other hand distractedly.

What! Had she ever met me? "I don't care what other people think of me."

"Oh, you certainly do," she practically purred. Now that he noticed, her face was getting awfully close... "Otherwise, you wouldn't have had to resort so drastically to that with your lunch."

"That peon shouldn't have been messing in my business."

"Oh?"

I glared at her. Creating perceptions or whatever were for hot shot businessmen and little girls like Minami Aiko. I dared her to say I just projected this cold exterior to protect my ooey and gooey soft and sweet inside. That's what Minami says.

"So Rei is your business, huh." Her lips twisted into a smile. She was trying to look down at me. Damn her.

"I – am not – gay!" I added a scowl to my glare for extra measure. How did she even know Rei's name? Oh wait, fangirl.

When she replied, her voice almost sang. "You shouldn't deny where your heart leads you."

"I don't have a heart."

"Of course you do," she said smoothly. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have acted so outrageously at your last tournament."

"I don't know what you mean," I replied coolly.

Her hand clasped around mine. I felt like pulling it loose, dragging it out of her grip, just to show her that she can't control me. I didn't, because that would've been controlling me too. Or maybe I just didn't want to admit that her grip was stronger than it should have been. Too... different from a woman's.

"You obviously felt you were in love with the Dark Master," she said. Somehow, without moving, her face was even closer to mine. I could feel her soft breath on my nose. "That is, until you realized you were just attracted to her power. Even your beloved Rei was drawn to her for that."

The power over immortality... the power to see what's to happen... the power to control what goes bump in the night... the power to have absolute control.

"The only question is..." she trailed off as her eyes looked into the distance. Then she once again turned to look me eye to eye. "How are you going to bring the Sun Master's enemy back to life?"

Understanding hit me like a bolt of lightning. I snatched away my hand, I pulled away from the eerie intimacy of closenes. I nearly tripped over my feet in my haste to get away from her. "So that's what you want," I breathed. My body and I laid in waiting across the room from her, ready to fight. "You're a witch... mind over matter, and all that. That's how you knew about Rei and how you knew about Shadra. You're spying for Holly."

Kurinsan didn't look all that concerned with my flight backwards. "No, I'm not," she told me, then smiled. "I may be a witch, but I turned it towards divination. So what does that tell you?"

My head turned to the side, as if I could gain some knowledge by looking at her from the corner of my eye. "You're aligned to both," I replied after some time.

She shook her head, a few tresses of hair falling over her face. "I'm aligned to the Dark Master," she said. "I'm aligned to the Master of Time."

"So, you want Shadra to wake up," I said.

"Yes."

"And you can see the future..." If she really was under Shadra's banner.

"I don't know how to revive her," she said, shaking her head again. Those few loose strands of hair bounced on her forehead. "Where my Master is concerned, or even where any Master is concerned, I cannot tell the future. Only the Master herself has that ability."

"Great," I said, rolling my eyes. I turned to leave.

"I do know that you should go with Rei to his kitty club," Kurinsan called off. "And don't mention me to your boyfriend –" I turned my head and glared at her "– he'll get jealous."

I turned all the way back around. "What the fuck are you talking about?" I demanded.

"Well," she said, putting a finger beside her lips and shyly turned her eyes away, "I am a very pretty boy."

My jaw was slack, and I didn't even care how undignified it was.

She – he laughed.

I whirled and stormed out of that shop. Damn transvestite fortune-tellers!

--

The door to my apartment was already locked by the time I reached home. After indulging in a rather unsatisfactory teriyaki burger at the McDonalds next to the train station, I had mixed up the entrances to the train station and only realized I was going the wrong way down the track when I saw farmland peak out between the smaller residential buildings. Definitely not Ginza. Now it was dark out.

I didn't bother calling out "tadaima" since I didn't want to bother Rei. Or rather, I didn't want to be bothered by Rei. Instead, I softly closed the door behind me and threw my uniform jacket and bag onto the sofa. Maybe I could just hide – uh, stay in my room all night.

No such luck. Whether by preternatural senses or my plain bad luck, Rei beckoned me into his room as soon as reached his door. I could have pretended that I hadn't heard him, except that he had left his bedroom door open and was looking at me. And I was looking back.

Inwardly, I sighed and entered his room, even sitting on his bed when he motioned me towards it. I deserve a little bit of rest after such a hectic day. But no, I had to talk to him.

"What was that about today?" he asked.

I could have replied with something sarcastic, but sometimes it's just best to go with the classic response. "Hn."

"He had to go to the school nurse!" Rei practically snarled. "That's not 'Hn'!"

"Hn."

He sighed. "Never mind. I was looking around for this Amulet of the Full Moon." He motioned his computer monitor. I could see the various results on some search engine. None of them were even close. Just some stupid fake Wicca moon charms.

"Do you have a better place to look?" He must have seen me roll my eyes.

Kurinsan's way to effeminate face popped into my mind's eye. I waved it away. He wouldn't know anything if he really couldn't see the futures of the Masters. Not that I would trust what he'd say, anyway.

Rei continued when I didn't answer, "Then we might as well look at all of the options. At least until we've got something more concrete." He turned back to the computer screen. It looked like I was being summarily dismissed. It irked me, even if I hadn't wanted to be here in the first place.

I gave one last glance at his overly cluttered room, and turned out the door. As I walked down the hallway to my room, I heard him call out, "And don't pull anymore of this crap!"

I gritted my teeth.

_To be continued..._


	5. Chapter 5

Cruel Moon  
Chapter Five

I clutched desperately at my blankets as I stared desperately around the brightening room. Where's Rei? Where... Yesterday's events flowed into my mind. Fuck, not again.

--

"Good morning, Kai-kun!" Minami's shrill voice once again shattered the silence in my head. She ducked her head to the side like a puppy as she smiled at me. And again, Rei – even if I wanted his help, which I didn't – was laughing with some other idiots by the classroom door. Minami's minions giggled as they grouped together by the windows.

I so did not want to deal with this right after a repeat of The Dream.

"So, Kai-kun..." she trailed off, twirling one of her pony tails around her index finger. I guess that it was to make her look sweet. It just made her look annoying. "Would Kai-kun like to go to the school festival with me?"

If I had even possessed just a bit less restraint, I would have been banging my head against the top of my desk. Anything to make the pain go away. As such, my dignity wouldn't let me do it, no matter how good it would feel.

"Minami," I said, staring straight at the chalkboard.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her straighten up with a surprised look on her face. Then her features smoothed back out into the large sugary smile she always had plastered on her face when she talked to me. "Yes, Kai-kun?"

I took a deep breath. It was now or never.

"You are a bubble floating in the breeze, a ball bouncing through the playground. You are a frost that congeals no ice, a rice paper door that stops neither breeze nor draght."

Her minions squealed from the sidelines, whispering fervently at each other, excited by the thought that Hiwatari Kai was reciting poetry. The other boys in the class, including Rei, were now starting to turn their attention here with more than a few glares. Minami nearly swooned. Idiots.

"You are a clock without a minute hand, a book without any words. You are a bird that can't sing, a flute without its keys."

A questioning look spread over Minami's face. The whispering grew louder.

"You... I wouldn't go out with you if God himself ordered me to."

Silence. Stunned silence.

Then Minami burst into tears and ran from the classroom. Her two sidekicks, while shooting glares at me, ran after her. The guys were glaring at me even fiercer. I don't understand why. Didn't they hate that Minami paid attention to me and not them? Well, now she'd never do that again.

Rei walked up to me looking disappointed. I ignored him in favour of pulling out my history notebook. I don't care what he thinks. That really wasn't so bad. I could've shot her instead. If only I could get my Browning through the metal detectors. Sigh.

Before he could say anything, though, Daisuke entered with another enthusiastic "Good morning, class!" After a few last glares at me (like I care), the class replied with its morning greeting.

"Hiwatari-kun," Daisuke started. "Did you bring my note back signed?"

The urge to smash my head against the desk returns. Didn't we just go through this yesterday?

"No."

"Hiwatari-kun..."

Rei puts his hand up. If he suggests that he could sign it...

"Yes, Kon-kun?"

"Kai's parents passed away," he said. I don't honestly know how to respond to that. "But he could get his grandfather to sign it."

I'm sure that if I looked into a mirror right now, I wouldn't even be able to see my pupils. My hands clenched at the desk and I was surprised that chunks of wood didn't come off in my hands. My arms were even shaking at the suggestion. Shaking in rage, of course.

"Alright," Daisuke said, turning her attention to me. "Why don't we invite your grandfather for a conference?" Finally, she noticed the horrible expression on my face. To her credit, she only flinched once before continuing, "Since you're having trouble getting things signed."

Damn you, Kon. Damn you.

--

My mood hadn't improved one iota when Rei pulled his chair over to my desk at lunch. He didn't even look apologetic. In fact, he didn't even look he had done anything like persuading the teacher to call Voltaire for a parent-teacher conference.

Minami and her sidekicks had returned when Daisuke switched off with the English teacher, who of course had fawned over Minami's drying tears. She had brilliantly managed to look like the little brave soldier who despite all odds (aka me, the monster from the blackest pit of the blackest forest) will just manage to keep on going. I had received the full classroom cleaning duty. I hate her.

Rei placed my bento box in front of me, then sat down and opened his. The only good thing about him coming over is that he's the one with my lunch. No way am I going to end up back at SOGO with that transvestite fortune-teller. No way.

"The pickled plums turned out especially nice today," Rei commented after swallowing the red fruit. If you can still call it a fruit.

I ignored him in favour of the sticky rice. If he wanted to play housewife after what he had done, it was no skin off of my back. He had food, and talk was meaningless.

"Kai-kun," a timid voice said from behind me.

Oh effing hell. Can't she just take a hint?

"Aiko-san," Rei greeted, smiling. Idiot.

Encouraged, Minami danced around me to pull up a chair to the other side of my desk, facing us. Easy... don't give in to my carnal urges... if I just focus on my bento, focus so hard that my brain is about to break, I should be able to pretend that neither of them are here. Ah, did Rei pack red beef curry?

"Did Rei-kun make those?" Minami asked as she put her lunch bundled up in a pink and white furoshiki onto the desk.

Rei nodded.

"Ah, Rei-kun is so good!" she gasped. "My mother is teaching me, but I can never get it to look just right. See?"

I took a bite and then forced myself not to spit it out. What had Rei done to the beef?

"It's more the taste than the presentation that matters," he said. "As long as it tastes good."

Right. As long as it tastes good. I could still feel it staining my tongue. I shovelled rice into my mouth to try to take away the taste. Oh, sweet, sweet blandness.

"But it makes it look so..." Minami trailed off. "Ne, Rei-kun? Is it true that Rei-kun and Kai-kun live together?"

Focus on the bento, focus on the bento. Remember how awful it is not to be eating the bento. Focus on the bento.

"Yes," Rei replied.

"And Rei-kun makes him..." I could feel her eyeing my bento. Mine! "Oh! Kai-kun, I'm sorry..."

If she dared to eat – wait, what? My gaze involuntarily bounced up to her face. Had she just apologized?

"I hadn't known that Kai-kun and Rei-kun were together." What! " I would've stopped trying to ask Kai-kun out on a date if I had."

"Ah..." Rei said, scratching the back of his head while still looking congenial. "We're not --"

I stood up so quickly that my vision glazed over. Before it had even cleared, my fist was flying towards her face --

-- only to be caught by Rei. Before I could even say another word, he hooked one arm around mine and dragged me away. It was all that I could do to wave goodbye to my bento before slid the door shut behind us. Damn it, why did Rei have to be so strong? Oh right, weretiger.

"What is wrong with you?" Rei hissed as he pulled me through the hallway. Without looking, I could tell that some of our classmates were peeking out at us from the classroom door.

"Nothing," I said as my voice threatened to lose its usual growl.

Finally, we were in the stairwell, completely abandoned. He pushed me up against the wall. "No, it's not nothing." I wondered vaguely why I didn't him him. He deserved it more than Minami. "You've been acting strange for the past while."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, that couldn't have anything to do with you telling Daisuke to call my grandfather, now could it?"

"You deserved that and you know it," Rei said. He's standing so close to me, his golden glare boring into me. "Just because she annoys you doesn't mean you can be so rude to her. She can't be any worse than how Takao used to be."

God, why can't he just move away a little! Just take one step back!

"And it started even before this," he continued. "Yesterday you nearly got expelled for what you did to that guy. You – you just... got rid of that guy the day before that. And the day before even that --"

"Yes, what did I do the day before that?" I asked, rolling my eyes. I tried to ignore the sweat building at the back of my neck. Rei did not sc – no, I won't even dignify it enough to put it into words.

"Oh Kai..." Rei said, finally lowering his eyes and stepping back. "We've never really talked about this, did we."

He leaned back against the wall next to me.

"I should've thought about this sooner," he finally said. "When we get home, I'll show you how to start controlling it."

Before I could ask what he meant, not that I was going to, Daisuke descended the stairs, smiling at us. "Hiwatari-kun, Kon-kun," she greeted. She looked more confident now for some reason. "I managed to speak with your grandfather during my spare. He's quite the man. So congenial that he even agreed to come today right after last class."

She gave us one last smile, before cheerfully waving goodbye.

I pushed myself away from the wall. Rei was certainly looking horrified.

"This... isn't going to be good, is it?" Rei asked.

Like so many things that he has said over the years, I didn't even dignify that with a response.

--

"I hope you don't mind, Hiwatari-kun, but Headmaster Nori asked to come to our conference," Daisuke said, her smile frozen, motioning towards the older, balding man.

I shrugged, sitting down in one of the padded chairs in front of the headmaster's desk. Daisuke remained standing uncomfortably next to the seated Nori. Since we were in his office, I must say that this wasn't unexpected. Besides, the only unwanted guest was still to come.

Rei had told me to skip. It wasn't like I cared about keeping in the faculty's good book, although I was already probably too far removed from it to ever make any real headway. Besides, the potential shift that could happen if I became too angry would be more devastating than whatever skipping would be.

But hell, if Voltaire wanted to admit that I'm important enough to bother, who was I to get in the way of that?

When Voltaire walked in, his cloak or cape or whatever it was billowing dramatically behind him, Nori stood up quickly in politeness, or more probably to suck up. The Hiwataris were an awfully wealthy family. Daisuke, of course, hadn't taken a seat so she didn't move. Neither did I. Instead, with a slight smirk across my lips, I gazed carelessly out of the window to the left of the precedings. It really was nice weather we were having.

"Hiwatari-sama," Nori greeted. From the loud crick coming from Nori, he must have bowed so low that anyone would've sworn he was meeting the Emperor himself. "It is a pleasure to meet you." Another loud crick as he must have straightened himself. "I am Headmaster Nori."

Voltaire ducked his head in acknowledgement.

"And this is Daisuke-sensei." She would've bowed accordingly, as low as Nori had.

But instead of acknowledging her, Voltaire's eyes must have fallen on me. "Kai," he said, for all the world happy for my presence.

"Voltaire," I said. I didn't look away from the window.

He took his seat right next to mine, sitting up straight like there was a metal rod shoved up his ass. On my part, I slouched even further into the chair. Once Voltaire had sat down, Nori took the opportunity to seat himself down to. Daisuke, of course, remained standing.

"So what is this about?" Voltaire asked me.

I wasn't going to answer, but it seemed like Nori would. "We've always had some..." Nori pretended to search for an appropriate word. "... issues with Hiwatari-kun's anger."

"Hmm, really?" Voltaire asked. "This is the first time I have heard of it."

"Well," Nori said. It didn't look like he had ever thought Voltaire would ask him that question. Nori would have to much class to say the real reason: the heavy Hiwatari donation when I first entered the school had the side effect of keeping lips sealed. "We have been able to resolve it before without needing to pull you away from your important business. But his recent actions --"

"Are worse than before," Voltaire finished. "Ah, I've been afraid of this."

"Afraid of what?" I asked, a scathing tone in my voice. "All those years of being your weapon finally catching up to me?"

"Weapon?" Daisuke didn't look like she knew how to take it.

Voltaire had been cleared of all charges since they hadn't been able to prove that he had actual knowledge of what had gone on inside the Abbey. Or what really happened, Voltaire being cleared of all charges since he had enough money to bribe officials on the case and keep news of the trial from leaving Russia. His publicist had really deserved that big salary that year.

"Kai, you really must stop telling such stories," Voltaire said, waving off the comment with a flippant motion of his hand. "No, I meant the accident a few days ago."

"Accident?" Nori asked. "What accident?"

Voltaire pretended to think for a second. "I'm not really sure I should be the one to tell you."

"The school really needs to be informed of such things when it affects the safety of the other students."

Voltaire pretended to take another moment to consider. Oh shit. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. I knew what he was thinking. I knew what he was going to say. The only real reason he would go out of his way for me.

"Kai had an unfortunate encounter with a shapeshifter."

Daisuke was staring at me. Nori was too. And damn it, Voltaire had just had to include Rei in this. The only encounter with a shapeshifter on the full moon was with Rei. If they found that out...

Voltaire looked at his watch. "Oh, look at the time. I'm going to be late for my next appointment." He stood up. Nori took a few seconds to realize that before he stood to, finally tearing his gaze away from me. "It was a pleasure."

He swept back out the door. Stupid cape/cloak and all.

Nori found himself once again staring at me, and coughed, closing his eyes. He sat back down. Daisuke recovered, relaxing again and giving me an encouraging smile. Oh, look, was that a bird outside the window?

"In light of recent information," Nori said as I rolled my eyes in my mind, "I'm afraid that we can't let you off with just a warning."

If sending one kid to the nurse's office and nearly sending another just resulted in a warning, what would I need to do to get a serious punishment?

Bring a shapeshifter. A violent shapeshifter. Or worse, being a gay, violent shapeshifter. Not that I'm any of those except violent. They just accuse me of it. And maybe... no. I'm not going to say it.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to suspend you," he finished.

"Nori!" Daisuke exclaimed. "You can't just suspend a student because they are a shapeshifter! There are laws against that now!"

"Shapeshifters are a threat to other students," Nori snapped at her, "As this one proves. He couldn't even go two days without needing disciplinary action."

"He could never go two days without needing disciplinary action!"

"This isn't negotiable," Nori said. He turned his attention back to me. "Until you are able to control yourself to an acceptable degree, you will not come onto our campus."

An acceptable degree? More like never.

"Do you understand?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. I stood up and left his office before hearing what Nori had to say. What did I care? I wasn't a student here. Besides, the world as we knew it was going to end soon unless I stopped it.

"Hiwatari-kun," Daisuke said, trailing after me. She looked at a loss of what to do.

"Don't worry about it," I said gruffly.

"No..." She snapped her fingers. "You could sue the school!"

"And lose?" I asked. "Look, I'm just going to clean out my desk and leave."

"But you can't just give up!"

I stopped and whirled around, catching her before she ran smack into me. "I don't need this place," I told her. She looked at me dejectedly. I sighed. I'm sure I'll never know why I bothered to say anything to her, but still... "Things are happening... that I have to take care of. After that's over, I'll came and get this all figured out. Okay?"

After a moment, she nodded. "Okay."

I turned back around to continue on to my – the classroom.

"Is Rei --" she cut herself off.

"Yeah," I said, not stopping.

"I'll make sure he's okay," she called after me.

And the thing was, I knew that she would. Or at least try to. Daisuke really was pro-preternatural, and even a compassionate person. That wasn't very good for her career.

But one good thing about suspension was that I wouldn't have to serve that stupid detention. Or see Minami Aiko ever again.

--

I cursed as he woke up panting. The dream! The same damn, stupid dream! I slid out of bed as quickly as my trembling joints would allow me. This ended now, I thought as I stumbled into his desk. Pulling the desk drawer out, I fingered my Browning gun.

Yes, this would end now even if I had to shoot it out of my head.

I picked it up and took the safety off, inserting a new magazine of silver bullets. No more shapeshifters, no more vampires, no more Shadra, no more Voltaire, no more effing slutty Rei! No more dreams...

I almost wished I had a mirror in my room just so that I could see my final victory.

As I raised my hand to the gun, a hand wrapped tightly around it. Someone was here! It jerked my hand back down. I struggled against the grip, struggled to raise the gun to point at the stranger. There was someone in my room. There was someone grabbing me. There was someone hiding in my room and now he had me and now he was going to –

The figure pulled me into his chest, taking his hand off of my wrist to wrap his arms around. The gun slid limply out of my hand onto the floor and it was only by miracle that it didn't go off by the jolt. My heart was beating frantically, but as the figure rubbed my back, it was starting to slow. My eyes began to droop, and I slowly lowered my head to his shoulder.

After a few moments, I realized who it was.

"Why?" I asked, the only word that I could get out of my mouth.

"We talked about this last night," he whispered into my ear. "The shapeshifter emotions, the predator urges, are going to make you try to hurt someone... well, more than usual." He chuckled. "It's going to get worst for a while before it levels out and you can control it. You need someone to watch over you, even when you're not around humans. You'll turn those urges against yourself."

"Sleep?"

"Yes, we should go back to sleep," he said, misinterpreting my intentions. Funny how he took 'You were watching me in my sleep?' and turned it that way. Oh wait, I only had managed to say the last word.

As I closed my eyes cradled against him, I couldn't help but think once I woke up again, I was going to try to kill myself again. Dreaming about Rei was one thing, but sleeping against him was a whole other thing.

--

This was getting insane. Dreaming about Rei, sleeping with Rei... I reached the top floor of the garish SOGO department store. If Kurinsan wanted to pick me apart, well fine. Better now before there's nothing left.

The transvestite was once again lounging in his shop, idly fingering a rubber ball that contrasted greatly with his gray kimono. I stomped towards him.

"Tell me!" I yelled at him. "You know all about me, so tell me!"

I startled him so badly that he dropped the ball.

"Kai-chan," he said, looking up at me with wide eyes. The kind of eyes that get makes the hardest part of me go soft with just the sight of them. The kind reserved for little girls and kittens. But that didn't really matter to me. Did he really just call me Kai-chan?

"What brings you back to my shop so quickly?" He didn't bother to stand up, so I plunked myself down in front of him.

"Am I in--" No, that wasn't right. "Am I really attracted to Rei?"

"Well..." Kurinsan trailed off. "That's hard to say. You may be attracted, but for your original question, you're so homophobic that you'd never really be attracted... And then there's other considerations that you haven't even thought of yet and can't with such a lack of information. Why do you ask?"

I looked him in the eye and didn't say a word.

Kurinsan answered himself. "Your dreams. You have dreams of the two of you."

"Yes," I said grudgingly, even though belatedly I realized it wasn't a question.

"And that's why you've been so on edge," he continued. "It wasn't your problem, but your dreams... which is kind of your problem if you really think about it."

He sat up so suddenly that I nearly fell backwards to get away from him.

"But for the important part, it's an outside influence," he said, staring down into my eyes. Aren't fortune-tellers supposed to look into the distance or something when reading the future? What is with people constantly looking me in the freaking eye? "Someone's trying to distract you from the real reason you're having those dreams."

"Someone?" I asked, then my mood darkened. "Voltaire. He's hired a witch."

"More or less along those lines," he said, waving the matter aside with his hand. "But you're getting away from the important part – what they're trying to distract you from."

"What?"

"Think about your dream. What happened, who was there?"

My mood was rapidly darkening. "Can't you just tell me?"

"I can't see that much."

I sighed, staring at the carpet. "I was being chased by Shadra through Tokyo... the streets were empty."

He nodded.

"Then Rei was there, and we were... Anyway, Shadra appeared and was going to kill us and the only thing I could think –" I broke off, looking up at Kurinsan.

"Exactly."

The implications of just that one little thought in a dream I had been trying to do my best to ignore.

"And to think," I smirked, "that if it weren't for Voltaire, I never would've figured it out."

He looked at me questioningly. "Oh?" Kurinsan then smiled prettily and I knew that he already knew what I was going to say. But I said it anyway. My mood had just improved so drastically that I was feeling generous.

"If I hadn't been expelled, I never would have come to see you."

"Hmm," he replied. "I feel so special."

--

After trying to extract more information out of Kurinsan, I waited hours for Rei to get home. My Internet search had done little better than his. Oh well. Maybe his contacts would be more helpful than Kurinsan. Hmm, maybe I should stop killing preternatural creatures. I'd have more people around for information in these situations.

Finally, a good time after he should have been home, Rei opened the front door and crashed onto the couch. He barely even had time to sigh when I pounced on him – well, not literally.

"Kai – what?" he barely got out before I started.

"The reason we're having such a hard time finding the Amulet of the Full Moon is because," I paused for dramatic effect, "it's not the Amulet of the Full Moon.

"It's the Amulet of the Risen Moon."

_To be continued..._


	6. Chapter 6

﻿Cruel Moon  
Chapter Six

_Kai was acting very strange. Well, stranger than usual. Rei had accepted long ago that what with Kai being raised in a Russian laboratory to become a weapon that his grandfather could use to take over the world, he was never going to be "socially adjusted."_

_He had gotten used to being glared or maybe even growled at for looking at Kai's plate during meal. Sometimes even just for looking in his general direction. He suspected that Kai didn't know he was doing it. So, instead, he'd sit next to Kai instead of across from him and focus on his own plate or stare straight ahead. It did make for some awkward conversations, but then again, conversations about anything trivial (as in anything less than the ultimate beyblade attack against Brooklyn) with Kai tended to be awkward._

_He had gotten used to the early morning wake up calls when Kai forgot he didn't have to get up at four AM to go running. He just grabbed the ear plugs he kept next to the bed and ignored the various thumps as Kai stumbled only half awake through the apartment. He was usually fast asleep again by the time Kai slammed the door shut as he returned home, cursing that he had once again forgotten._

_He had gotten used to the fact that Kai communicated with no one unless forced to. Anyone besides Rei. And usually that only earned him a stern grunt whenever he said anything to him. He also accepted how after just a few weeks since Rei had moved in, Kai had stopped cooking altogether and waited for him to make the meals. And clean the apartment. And do the laundry. And do the dishes. Well, it was only fair since Kai paid for everything around the place. And he didn't really mind the chores in the first place._

_But now he was acting stranger. Never mind the bento attack, or Minami, or even that he had been turned into a shapeshifter after trying to rescue him while he wished all shapeshifters would die. A lot of the changes would due the impending shift._

_No, it was the way that Kai looked at him._

_He hadn't really noticed it until that morning when he had stepped out the shower and realized he had forgotten his uniform in his room. Nothing spectacular, although he was annoyed with himself. He stopped himself from just heading to his room. While he had nothing against being naked, he was still a bit wet. So, he pulled a towel around his waist and another around his hair and stepped out into the hall._

_The air outside was frigid, and he shivered. Getting dressed in the nice steamy bathroom was a whole lot nicer than the not so steamy bedroom... although, if if his room was steamy, Rei would have a lot of questions... and it was best not to think about those kinds of things._

_Then Kai stepped into the hall and walked past, oblivious to the wet and nearly naked Rei standing in the hall. It wasn't the first time that this had happened, nor the last. Completely oblivious, except for his eyes._

_He hurried to his own room and collapsed onto his desk chair. That didn't just happen, he told himself. He was imagining it. Trick of the light. How could someone even be completely oblivious when they're staring right at you? That just made it worse. Rei knew that Kai had been looking at him, he couldn't deny that, but the whole not oblivious thing..._

_After realizing that, he suddenly remembered other incidents that seemed innocuous at the time. Glances during class or train rides, Kai staring at him when he had thought he hadn't been looking. Of course, that didn't mean anything. People stare at train wrecks even though they're not supposed to! The same held true for almost naked guys standing in the hallway. It was nothing. Just instinct, whether human or shapeshifter, to check out a threat or oddity._

_He carried that thought up until he saw Minami approaching Kai once again. "So, Kai-kun..." she breathed. "Would Kai-kun like to go to the school festival with me?"_

_Ah, just off the top of his head, no, Kai-kun wouldn't like to go with you. Just like yesterday. And the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that. He stopped himself before he could get too far. Rei could pass the lunch hour and his afternoon with going over how many times Minami had asked Kai out._

_Then Kai did something surprising. He said, "Minami." He actually addressed her._

_"Yes, Kai-kun?"_

_"You are a bubble floating in the breeze, a ball bouncing through the playground. You are a frost that congeals no ice, a rice paper door that stops neither breeze nor draught. You are a clock without a minute hand, a book without any words. You are a bird that can't sing, a flute without its keys."_

_Rei's eyebrows lifted. He was in an awfully poetic mood today._

_Oh God, Kai was dying._

_"You... I wouldn't go out with you if God himself ordered me to."_

_Minami burst into tears and ran from the room, her friends trailing after her to make sure she was all right. He just _had_ to get carried away. Most of the guys around here would love to go out with Minami. He could have just pawned her off on someone else. But no, he had to go with his typically anti-social ways... or was it anti-social?_

_No, it couldn't be._

_Oh Kai._

_No._

_Rei walked towards him but Daisuke arrived before he could even get to him._

_Still, he was relieved. For more than one thing. Like, that Kai seemed to be as healthy as ever. That had seriously scared him._

_-_

_"But it makes it look so..." Minami trailed off later at lunch. She fingered her own bento box. "Ne, Rei-kun? Is it true that Rei-kun and Kai-kun live together?"_

_"Yes," he said. Why did that matter?_

_"And Rei-kun makes him..." Kai was growling again. Could only mean he sensed Minami looking at his bento box. "Oh! Kai-kun, I'm sorry..."_

_His eyebrows rose. Sorry? Kai's the one who should be sorry! After the way he behaved..._

_"I hadn't known that Kai-kun and Rei-kun were together. I would've stopped trying to ask Kai-kun out on a date if I had."_

_What! They were... what! "Ah..." he said, trying to remain as pleasant as possible. "We're not--"_

_He broke off as Kai stood up and tried to punch Minami. Thankfully, Rei had the quicker reaction and better leverage of the two. He stopped him, and pulled him out the door. What Minami had implied... was a mistake, just a mistake. Never mind that Kai had almost constantly been staring at him the past two days..._

_"What is wrong with you?" That summed everything up quite nicely. Of course, Kai would never get it. Sometimes, although rarely admitted, Kai could be as dense as Takao. Takao when they had first met, even. Yes, something very rarely mentioned due to the threat of Kai's reaction._

_"Nothing," he muttered._

_Rei pulled him into the stairwell and pushed him against the wall. "No, it's not nothing." Were his eyes opened more than usual? "You've been acting strange for the past while."_

_He rolled his eyes, but Rei could still see the slight dilation of his pupils. "Oh, that couldn't have anything to do with you telling Daisuke to call my grandfather, now could it?"_

_"You deserved that and you know it," Rei said. He took a step forehead, noticing the quickening of Kai's pulse. "Just because she annoys you doesn't mean you can be so rude to her. She can't be any worse than how Takao used to be._

_"And it started even before this," he continued. He could see the whites of his eyes. His own beast was beginning to rise in his chest. Kai's nervousness smelled delicious. "Yesterday you nearly got expelled for what you did to that guy. You – you just..." Rei couldn't think of the words he wanted. The other boy was too distracting. "Just – got rid of that guy the day before that. And the day before even that --"_

_"Yes, what did I do the day before that?" he asked, rolling his eyes again. Sweat, Rei could smell sweat. Something was panicking him..._

_Kai stop panicking, please, Rei mentally begged. He was becoming prey that his beast wanted. But why was Kai so nervous? He'd like to lick – no, none of those thoughts! None – it clicked._

_The glances, the outright staring. Kai ignoring all the pretty girls that came around. Kai only speaking voluntarily to him. Kai panicking when he was so close. They were staring at each other eye to eye. "Oh Kai," he finally said. He moved even closer. He could feel Kai's short harsh breaths fluttering against his lips._

_He kissed him._

_--_

I jolted from my sleep, nearly falling off the bed. Hot, thick emotion tore through my chest, attacking my heart. I screamed just let the pain go somewhere. "Why... why oh freaking why does he keep kissing me!"

"Who keeps kissing you?" a groggy voice asked from beside me.

I yelled again and nearly fell off the bed again when I saw the gold eyes framed my long thick black hair lying on my pillow. He pushed himself off the bed, nearly straddling me in the process.

I seriously needed to get a bigger bed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, leaning forward.

"Nothing, nothing," I told myself. This was just another dream. It had just seemed like I was waking up, but really it was just another dream. It happened all the time on TV. Why else would Rei be lying shirtless in my bed if my subconscious wasn't trying to torture me? I found myself laughing hysterically.

"Kai," he said, again. "Are you really okay?"

"Fine, fine, just forgetting once again that I don't have to get up at four am to go running," I nearly finished with another giggle.

"Uh, what?"

"Isn't that what you said? That I had been raised in a Russian laboratory to become a weapon for my grandfather to take over the world with? So I could never stop being crazy – no, it was that I would never be _socially adjusted_, that's it."

Rei reached his hand upward to my forehead, but I caught it and pulled it to me.

"But it _does_ mean that I'd be perfect boyfriend material," I concluded, nearly folding over from a fit of laughter.

"For Minami?" he asked. "Kai --"

"For you!" I said with a smile that was probably identical to Minami's. Oh well. It was just a dream.

"What? Kai, I don't understand..."

"What's to understand? This is just a dream!"

"Uh... Kai?" Rei ventured. "This isn't a dream... although it's crazy enough to be."

"Why else would you be naked in my bed?"

"Because – Wait, you have dreams about me being in your bed?"

"That's just what Voltaire wants me to think."

"Maybe," Rei said, biting his lower lip. I rose off of the bed, just to stare closer at the fang against flesh. "Maybe you should go back to sleep."

"Maybe..." I drawled out, my eyes still on his lip. "Not."

"Maybe... yes." He pushed me back onto the bed, and suddenly I was staring into his eyes. "Sleep."

"Fine," I said, though it was blurred by a long yawn.

--

I was bored of waiting for Rei and it was only ten in the morning. He wouldn't be home until four, and we wouldn't leave until at least eight at night to get the information Rei's contacts will have scrounged up by then. Maybe getting kicked out of school wasn't such a great idea.

For the fifth time that morning, I stalked through the living room and down the hallway. When I reached the end, I cooled my forehead against the cream painted wall. Turning, I allowed my body to slouch against it. The Internet was a waste of time. Kurinsan didn't know anything besides what I knew already. Voltaire wouldn't have left any more clues lying in his mansion. That was the extent of my sources.

I could try reading, but that seemed like a waste of time. I had tried to watch the news for any anomalies, but had grown tired of the ceaseless wars and politics. Anything relating to Voltaire would be so buried in anything that it wouldn't even be considered newsworthy.

I could practice beyblading, but there was no where to go around here without running into the bunch of annoying, whiny brats who either would believe I'm the coolest thing since mochi and that they absolutely have to talk to me or that they're just so much better than me and are deigning to show interest in me (yet still manage to carry off an hour of one-sided conversation by following me just like everybody else). Besides, without Dranzer... Beyblading wasn't enjoyable any more.

I pushed myself off the wall, and sluggishly moved back down the wall. When I reached Rei's door, I stopped.

Now, there was probably a whole boat load of moral reasons not to invade Rei's privacy just because I'm bored. Of course, did I really care about being moral? Hell, there's probably even some reasons not related to morality to not go in. Still, I found myself pushing open the door. I've been invited in his room before and it's not like he really kept anything of real interest out in the open.

Slowly, I studied the pictures pasted onto his wall. A few of them are from before Rei's betrayal of the White Tiger clan, black and white photos showing tiny and plump versions of Rei, Mao, Lee and the other two annoying ones all laughing and giggling together in various rural settings. More of the pictures are from the three years we competed together abroad and in the World Championships. The different teams we met, the different places we ate (featuring mainly Takao and Max, and their broad assortment of orders), and each of us during the beybattles. My fingers reach up towards one photo in particular before I realized it and forced it back to my side.

A photo of Shadra the night before she battled against Brooklyn, sitting with her legs overhanging the wooden walkway at Takao's dojo. She still looked every bit as determined as when, just a few hours earlier, she had forced Takao to give her the final spot by saying, "I'm a girl, like Hiromi, so don't argue with me." I don't think I've ever seen Takao that scared, not even when Brooklyn's mind had transported us to another dimension. Then again, he, of all of us, would be used to switching dimensions.

Against all odds, Shadra had won against the extremely psychotic natural beyblader. Brooklyn had been broken. From what I've heard from Takao, all Brooklyn ever does any more is stare off into space into the various places he's sat at around Garland's mansion. Not much of a difference from before, I had told Takao. Except that he never does anything else. Not eat, not drink, not sleep, not anything unless he's forced to. Shadra had never said what had gone on when she followed him into his mind.

But we had still been happy. Shadra's victory had brought down BEGA and everyone had more or less recovered. I should have wondered just how she could have triumphed over that. Then maybe what had happened next wouldn't have surprised me.

I turned away from the photos and sat down on his neatly covered bed. Brooklyn hadn't been the only one to worry about. After that, Shadra had been acting strangely too. So bloody unfocused. She lost every training match, at least the ones she managed to show up for. I had yelled at her so much. I probably yelled more words at her than I have ever said to anyone else – combined.

I couldn't understand why she had to be so flaky – at least she could still beyblade! I could only coach the rest of the team. Then we received that bloody invitation to that tournament... Shadra had been quite adamant about not accepting the invitation.

"Guys, you can't be serious," Shadra had said as we lounged around Takao's dojo. "We can't just pick up and leave right now."

"And why not?" Rei asked. "There's no tournaments around here with the BBA just starting up again."

"Exactly! We have to help them out," she said sagely.

"And since when have you helped?" Hiromi asked. "Every time we go to coach the kids, you're late."

"That's because..." She bit her lower lip. Then she straightened up with a large plastered smile on her face. "I've just been working up to that."

Hiromi rolled her eyes. "From what? All you've ever done is slouch around here."

"Not true... I've been..." Shadra trailed off. "Well, I can't tell you." Takao, Max, Kenny and Rei all sighed. I couldn't say that they were wrong. "But, it's big. And so we can't go."

"That's... You're insane!"

"I am not!"

"Are too!"

Shadra huffed, crossing her arms and looking away from the smouldering brunette. Her eyes then fell upon me and immediately brightened. Oh fuck.

"Kai..." she started.

"Kai wants to go too!" Hiromi interrupted.

"If he did, you wouldn't be so eager to 'voice' his thoughts!"

"You can't just expect him to give this up because you're being a brat!"

"But have you ever considered how Kai feels at having to watch everyone else beyblade!"

"He'd rather coach us than be pitied by you!"

The two girls growled at each other, and then in a horrid synchrony, they both turned back to me with a, "Kai, tell her!"

Now I was sighing and the others were grinning at my predicament but trying not to be so outright with it that I turned the two of them upon them.

"Shadra does have a point..." I said, and Shadra immediately brightened up. It almost brought me to smile. Almost.

"Which would be?" Hiromi asked.

Luckily for me, Shadra answered with, "That tournaments held in Canada are always a bad idea!"

"Which would be showed by..."

"Fanfiction!"

"Fan--" Hiromi managed before she broke into laughter. "That's your proof?"

"Yes!" Shadra said vehemently.

Hiromi snorted. "It doesn't matter anyway what Kai thinks," she said. Oh, it doesn't? "He'd say whatever just to get into your pants!" Wait, what? The other guys were looking at me in interest. Takao even had the audacity to give a cat call while I glared darkly at them. "We're a democracy and will go by a vote of majority."

"It's not a vote of majority if your face scares them into agreeing with you!"

And then Hiromi pulled out her really scary face. "My _face_ is very pleasing and elegant and beautiful! And don't you forget it!"

Shadra faked a yawn.

"We'll put it to an anonymous vote, then everybody can state their _real_ opinion." Hiromi glared at me as she said that part. Like I'd give anything but.

We ended up writing on small squares of paper, which Rei, who both girls decided would be the most neutral – or, basically secretly on their side – would then count. Of course, the whole anonymous thing was just a lovely fairy tale since whoever lost would then be horrible to the rest of the team. Or, in what happened, everyone but one person had voted for going so Shadra knew exactly who had had voted against her. As in everyone else.

Yet so far, Shadra had been acting sort of like herself. Well, maybe except for not wanting to go to a tournament. But that could all be excused. The next thing that happened was so entirely out of character for her that I don't think we'll ever forget it.

She burst into tears.

"Shadra..." Hiromi said, as shocked as we were. "It'll be okay--"

"No, it won't!" Then she had flung herself at me, her hands clutching at the back of my tank top and her face buried into my shoulders. It was all that I could do to just sit there supporting her weight without falling over. "Please... please, can we just skip this one?" she whispered between sobs. "Just this one?"

"No," I said.

And then she pulled back, her face entirely neutral. "Fine," she said, not an emotion in her voice. She stalked out of the room.

Of course, if Shadra had just confided in why we shouldn't go, we... well, we probably would've gone anyway. What she would have told us was about as believable as some of the fanfiction that Shadra had relayed the plot of to me too many times. She... had an unhealthy obsession with it. But if she had told us, we would have been more prepared. Or not. What happened at the tournament had just been...

When we got there to register ourselves in, the receptionist Danielle informed us that Shadra had switched to the Masters team. All joking of the team name aside, we were left trying to figure out who would be our fourth player. Kenny was the only one left who who was suitable for the position, having been a substitute blader for Takao at the last World Championship. Then we had bemoaned Shadra's betrayal, now thinking we understood why she hadn't wanted us to come.

Then, Yuki, that fucker, had come to our cabin that night, demanding to see Shadra. We hated each other almost immediately. Probably because of the choking thing.

"Wait... Shadra isn't here?" Yuki asked. "Why isn't she here?"

"Not that it's any of your business," Takao inserted, "but she left to join the Masters team."

"Oh bloody hell! I told her, I told her..." He shook his head, his little pink streaks flying about his head. He collapsed onto Max's bunk bed. "But when has she ever listened to me? I only just know a hell of a lot more than she does!"

"You told her what?" I huffed, trying to ignore my aching neck.

"Not to come!"

"Why did you tell her not to come?" Hiromi demanded. She could get most beybladers to cower before her when she was in this mood. Here – here was the source of their argument. Yuki, however, failed to look even suitably impressed, which ticked me off even more.

"None of your fucking business," he said, ignoring her gnashing teeth. "Not that it matters now." He sighed. "And I was just starting to like this blue little planet. And I had just discovered Angel Sanctuary, too. Sad fate."

"Is Voltaire trying to take over the world again?" Takao moaned.

"No, it's going to get --" He sat up and stared at us all, as if he just realized something for the first time. "You mean, she didn't tell you?"

"Know what?" Hiromi asked.

Yuki collapsed again with a grin on his face. "Finally, she listens to me! Though, I would have preferred she listened to the other thing I had said."

Fuck Yuki and fuck Shadra. If they had just been upfront with us, then Shadra... wouldn't be sleeping. She would still be here. Tala – Tala would still be... Fuck him. Fuck her. Fuck of all of them. They kept secrets. Fuck... fuck...

Unable to take reminders of the past any longer, I stormed out of Rei's room.

--

"Kai," Rei said, giving me a warning glare. "If you don't stop growling, you're going to piss off the wrong kind of person."

I glared at him. Wrong kind of person – who did he think he was talking to? I grew up at the Abbey. I was the wrong kind of person, damn it! "Which would be fine," I bit out, "if you had let me bring my gun."

"No, it would be the opposite of fine. You'd be shooting everybody. And don't deny it," he snapped as I opened my mouth to reply. "I can see the look in your eye."

"Fine," I said, glaring at the ground. "How long are we supposed to wait here?"

"Until we get to the front," he replied. He meant the front of the line. The long line full of shapeshifters and freaky humans trying to get into some perverted night club. The night club that Rei's contact happened to own. And to top it off, he had dressed me in very tight black jeans and some kind of weird ropey top. With a dog collar. A real, leather, freaking dog collar. This is just not my week.

Rei, of course, was dressed more modestly in trousers and a Chinese-style kerchief top. Okay, maybe that one wasn't so modest. I would see all of his back if it weren't for his knee length hair, which he had only pulled back into a leather thong. Large chunks had escaped to rest over his shoulders. Just focusing on the bare skin brought my hand up, and I growled when I saw it. I crossed my arms. Stupid hands.

"Couldn't your contact have at least come out to grab us?" A couple of girls dressed in leopard print walked by, giggling together as they checked out Rei. Not surprising, since it's been happening the past hour we've been in line.

"He could have," Rei said vaguely, then turned to grin at me. "But you need to work on your patience."

He didn't even look apologetic as I glowered at him.

"Besides," he continued. "Kata's gone out of his way to get this information so quickly. It's the least we can do to repay him."

"How can standing in a line for an hour possibly repay him?"

"Oh, but when people see you standing here in line to get into the club, they want to get into the club too. That's why you're dressed like that."

I doubted it was me they'd get in line for.

"I thought you said," I tried hard to keep the growl out of my voice, "that it was to fit in?"

"That too." And he had the nerve to smile at me again. "Besides, you're at a night club. I thought the clothes would help you loosen up. To act like an actual teenager. Meet some girls."

"So, we're not just going to get the information and go," I said.

"Yep." His golden eyes looked at me brightly. Too brightly. Damn him.

"You do know that time is of the essence?" I reminded him.

"Yep."

"That every minute we waste in this club could mean the destruction of the entire world?"

"Kai, we don't even know what the information is yet. If we need to act quickly, we'll leave right away. But if not, then we can wait and have a little fun. You need to... de-stress, really."

Fun, hardly. A mass of shapeshifters and their human fans gyrated to some God-awful music that took the artist all of five minutes and a few random sound bytes to create. I could hardly think of anything more stressful.

"And meet some girls."

"Since the ones I know already are all so much fun," I spat out. "Look where just one of them got us."

"Well, Shadra's hardly a girl," Rei pointed out. She was a freaking magical girl.

"As close as any of these," I said.

Rei huffed.

I rolled my eyes. I had even more than good reason to not like this idea. Never mind that it's horribly stupid and previous attempts by my team mates trying to get me to lighten up had ended disastrously. But the last time I'd been at one of these freak clubs, I'd been turned into a shapeshifter. So maybe that couldn't technically happen again, but that didn't mean something worse couldn't.

And just to prove my point, here comes the cow.

"Kai-kun! Rei-kun!" Minami ducked under the rope separating the line to the club from the rest of the street. Ignoring the glares and grumbles from behind at her faux pas, not to mention the security guard that was motioning her to get to the back of the line, she almost neatly hung herself around my neck. "What are you doing at a club like this?"

That's the sort of thing I could ask of her. Of course, the answer would be obvious from her tiny leopard-print skirt to the bright pink belled collar around her neck. She was a furry.

There are two kinds of furries, believe it or not. The first kind are people who like to dress up as animals. Really, just giant stuffed animals. Weird, but true. The second kind are the equivalent of groupies to shapeshifters. They're humans that are absolutely obsessed with them, but can't or won't be turned for various reasons. For example, it's illegal to wilfully turn a minor into a shapeshifter, which would probably be Minami's excuse. They could still run around at the full moon and be turned, but that way tended to end up with more corpses than shapeshifters. Or, they can just be too scared to become one themselves. Or, and here's the even most moon-shined part, they worship shapeshifters and to be turned into one would be a sin. Why else do you think that the ancient Egyptian gods are depicted with animal heads?

"I'm trying to get Kai to be social," Rei explained. I glared at him, because that made her cling even harder to me.

"I can be sociable," she chirped.

If sociable meant practically strangling the hell out of everyone she met with her clamp-like affectionate gestures, then yes. Very sociable.

"Do you come here often?" Rei asked, ignoring my obvious discomfort.

"Whenever I can sneak out," she said, pouting. "Dad's so caught up in getting me into university, I hardly ever get to have fun. And he really wouldn't approve of this place in particular."

The line moved forward, Minami dragging me forward by the neck. For everybody who hasn't been manhandled by a teenage girl gripping your neck, it isn't exactly a very graceful way. She jerked me, unexpectedly, and I caught myself just in time to not crash us both down to the dirt. But that left my face incredibly close to the bare skin of her shoulders.

She smelled so good. I lowered myself to come into contact with that skin, rub my rubs, my cheek over her shoulder. My right hand sought her back, pulling her into my body where her small but perk breasts pressed noticeably into my chest. She gasped. My other hand gripped into her perfumed hair (who perfumed their hair?), jerking her head back for that bare curve of her neck interrupted by her collar. Her heart sped up, and her pulse pounded against her skin. She was getting warmer, and sweatier --

A hand grabbed my own hair roughly, pulling me away. I struggled for a moment, but the hand was so strong... I stood there, peaceful for that moment. Minami was extracted from my grip but I didn't fight it. I didn't want her. She was warm, but so was the person holding me. I could curl up against that...

That brought me back to reality.

I had been feeling Minami up!

The fuck!

I wanted to curl up against Rei!

Double fuck!

Rei's hand was in my hair. I angrily swatted him away, lashing out against him, but only when Minami was well away from me – as if I'd try to grab her back, made me feel sick inside – did he let me go. Now my blood was the thing pumping. How dare he! How dare he make me do anything!

I wanted to lash my arms at him. I wanted to tear my fingers across his face. I wanted to claw him till he bled all over him and all over me...

"Kai-kun," Minami moaned. It broke the moment. She looked up at me with a breathy expression, one of absolute adoration. I had enough fangirls to know that expression off by heart. "I didn't realize... you..."

Say that I have any feelings for you that aren't of absolute disgust and I will rip your head from your body and crush it like I would a tick! That's what she was a tick! An ugly, useless tick!

"You're a shapeshifter," she said. Her eyes darted to Rei, who I now noticed was standing rather close. "You're one, too?"

Rei closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded.

She was starry eyed again. "Shapeshifters and homo lovers," she said dreamily. "There has to be an anime about this. Or at least a doushinji..."

Funnily enough, I didn't feel like killing her, mutilating her, or dismembering her.

I must be growing as a person.

Right.

But at least she didn't reattach herself to my neck.

But Rei seemed to have a problem about it. "We're not--"

"That must be why you joined the Bladebreakers," she said. "You looked at Takao and Max and deemed them idiots, not worth your time. But you saw one reason worth joining: Kai. It was love at first sight. Unrequited, as Kai is just too cool, too manly, too not interested in anyone to ever be considered gay or straight. But you were the only one that Kai ever confided in, so you grew hopeful. For three years you waited for him to give a sign that he ever liked you as more than just a friend. You endured his commitment problems, you endured his silences and long retreats and even his brush offs for three years. Then, you could hardly take it any more. You had to know, even if it sacrificed your friendship, the only way you could get close to him. You couldn't bare to watch him everyday, knowing that his skin, his lips, his... his everything was off limits to you. Especially when once again he defected from the team, this time joining with your sworn enemy BEGA. You confessed, and it disturbed him so greatly that he lost his match to Brooklyn. That's the only way he could have ever lost."

That was why? Oh good, and I thought that my ego needed readjusting.

"But after much soul searching, he realized that he really did love you, and because of the strength of your love combined, Kai overcame Brooklyn, beating him easily. For a year you lived in happiness together until tragedy struck!"

Hmm, I think I know where this is going. Rei looked so out of character that it was amusing.

"In the throws of orgasm, you accidentally infected Kai with lycanthropcy. You were worried that while Kai was able to accept you as a shapeshifter, being one himself and having been infected by him might drive him away from you. But his attraction only grew. Now, you're a mated pair. And you've lived happily ever after. But..." she trailed off.

Rei was absolutely slack-jawed, and an evil grin slid onto my face at the sight of it. That's what you get for manhandling me! She had just come up with a history of us based merely on the fact that she thought we were gay together. I was even a little impressed. Not even Shadra would have been able to spin such a tale. As the recipient of so many of her private discussions on fanfiction and doushinji, I had a pretty good idea that she would have fallen short.

Minami stared up at the sky with that scrunched up little face of hers that she got when she was thinking too hard. "But where does Shadra come in?"

"How does Shadra come in?" Rei asked, his voice funny with shock.

"Yes," she said. "Everyone always believed that she was... well..."

"Fucking us all," I said. It was the least polite of all the rumours.

Minami dejectedly nodded.

"Shadra had realized that she was rather a fan of yaoi, so she liked to watch the two of us," I said. I admit, probably the only reason why I wasn't freaking out was because it made Rei so uncomfortable. Homophobe. "We were an unofficial menage a trois."

"Oh," Minami said, looking thoughtful.

Rei was now glaring at me.

"Then..." she looked up at with again with those starry eyes, her hands clasped together. "Then... can I be your third now?"

"No!" Fuck no! Hell no! Oh, wait, I wasn't the one who spoke. I stared at Rei, who was trembling as he glared at Minami. And when I say trembling, I mean that his arms were shaking as he clenched his hands into fists and his eyes retracted to their angry kitty slits. If he clenched his teeth any harder, his fangs were going to pierce his bottom lip.

Okay, so how did I not notice he was shapeshifter before now?

Minami actually looked scared. Sacred and aroused (she was a furry, what else?). She opened her mouth a moment, before closing it, then opening it again. However, she was spared the need to actually articulate anything by the security guard.

"ID?" he demanded.

Oh, we were at the front of the line. Fancy that.

"Come on, I haven't all night," the guy said, holding his hand out towards me.

He thrummed with energy. Shapeshifter.

"Come on!" he snapped, which brought me back to the predicament at hand. We were in high school. We were not even old enough to have driver's licenses. Damn it.

Minami, though, pulled a card out of her pants, literally as it had been tucked into the waistband. The shapeshifter looked over it, before handing it back to her and waving her on through. A fake ID. Of course, since she professed to coming here as often as she could.

But that still left Rei and I. Rei, who was still hissing pissed and I, who had never been social enough to require a fake ID to get into clubs.

"If you don't have ID, then stop wasting everyone's time and get out of line."

"The owner invited us," I said.

"Oh, really."

I glared at Rei, and nearly had to shove him to get him to pull himself together. "Kata has some information for us," he finally said. "Kon Rei."

The security guard stared dubiously at us.

"If you'd rather take it up with him..." Rei shrugged.

"Fine, get in."

Upon stepping into the club, my ears were assailed with pounding music. I grit my teeth before continuing. Weren't shapeshifters supposed to have sensitive hearing? How could they stand this?

Rei led me, his hips unconsciously swaying to the beat of the music (the beat was about the only thing I seemed to be able to make out because it was so loud), through the crowded club to a doorway on the left side of the stage where the DJ had set up. Thankfully, once we entered the adjacent hallway, the music abated to a dull thrum. We walked silently to the room at the end of the hallway.

It reminded me of the last time we had been in a club, although one of less class. But it wasn't like I could be turned into a shapeshifter again, now could I? I tried to tell myself that, but my body was still taut from wariness. The office was at least different. Western style. A orange bleached man who looked to be in his late twenties sat with his feet on the desk. Two others, shapeshifters most likely, were speaking quietly with them.

"Ah, Rei," the redhead said, looking away from his companions, who fell silent, looking at us angrily.

"Kata," Rei acknowledged. Then he did something that I never thought I would see. At least from him. He dropped to his knees and crawled around the desk to the bleach-head, stopping just short of rubbing against Kata's thigh like a cat in heat. Hmm, could shapeshifters go into heat?

Almost absently, although still controlled to the point that it signified its importance, the man petted (yes, PETTED) Rei's head, running his fingers through the silky black tresses.

"This is Kai," Rei muttered, and Kata looked over at me.

I used my best glare on him, both daring him and revealing what would happen to him if he demanded I do the same. His face broke into a wide grin. He didn't have fangs like Rei, even though his eyes were the same colour green as his beast-form's eyes probably were.

"The Amulet of the Risen Moon," I prompted.

"A very rare item," Kata said. "Highly magical and powerful."

"What does it do?" Rei asked, still kneeling on the ground. Probably because Kata's hand still held him there. Bastard. It made me even more on edge as it was too much like when Rei had been bound and tied before. I didn't like it.

"Many things," Kata replied, staring at the ceiling. The two other shapeshifters were still glaring angrily at me, and Kata must have remembered this. "Don't worry about them," he said. "They just don't think I should be going against Aries. He would try to kill my whole pard off if he knew that I knew."

"Aries?" I asked.

"The Dragon King, Aries," he answered. "One of the first generation vampires. He mainly ruled in the Mediterranean until Japan caught his eye. Or, rather, the Amulet of the Risen Moon did."

"Why?" I demanded. I was growing tired of these roundabout answers. We weren't getting anywhere.

"Okay, History 101," Kata said, swinging his legs off of the desk so that he sat respectably in his chair, without breaking or twisting his hold on Rei. Rei didn't seem to mind the contact, so I wouldn't remark on it, even though I did mind.

"Universe created the world because She was bored. She wanted something pretty, and flashy, and shiny to watch all day. But the thing is, She, in her haste for the superficial, made the world unstable. No foundations at all. There was mass terror when the world began to collapse, the inhabitants running every which way, which really didn't help. So She created the four Masters to fill those crucial foundational settings."

"Yes, we know," I ground out. Waste of time. "Space, Dimension, Mind, Time."

"Exactly. So, they ruled over the world for aeons, with sacred spirits helping them uphold their position. Too long for us humanoids to comprehend. Of course, humans and half-humans were at the bottom of this society. Treated like trash. The Master of Time started to pity us lowly beings."

I interrupted, hoping to get to the useful part sooner rather than later, "So she dispersed the sacred spirits into the human population, breaking the Masters' power and giving the humans the ability to overtake the world. The sacred spirits now used in children's games."

Kata nodded. "Except that the only thing that would break the Masters' kingship would be for them to die. Dispersing the sacred spirits wouldn't accomplish that."

I stared at him. No one had ever mentioned this part. Yuki was going to get a piece of my mind – not to mention my bullets – the next time I had to associate with him!

"So the Master of Time..." I started, then stopped. "She would have the power to take away their immortality. Death brings her Christmas presents for fuck's sake."

"However," Kata emphasized, "By taking away her immortality, she was diminishing her powers... she couldn't do it by herself. Not and actually complete it, since she wouldn't have control of those powers long enough. So she created an amulet infused with her powers."

"The Amulet of the Risen Moon."

He nodded.

"So Aries is trying to gain her powers?" That was not cool, but definitely something that Voltaire, since he was in league with Aries apparently, would want.

"Sort of," he said. His hand slid down Rei's head until it could stroke the fine hairs at the back of his neck. "The amulet was only created to do one specific thing, though, so wouldn't contain most of her powers."

"Even though you said it did many things," I sneered.

"I lied," he said, shrugging. "Well, it only did one thing for the Master, but could mean various things to others who use it."

"So he wants immortality," I said.

"He's a vampire," Kata said, rolling his eyes at me.

"He's going to give the Masters' their immortality back?" It was their ploy during the tournament.

"That would put him, a half human, back among the dredges."

Wait a second. This was obvious.

"He's going to wake only Shadra up," I said, "Unbalance the forces of good and bad."

"And have the Time Master under his finger."

Crap.

Rei suddenly asked, "Do you know where it is? The amulet?"

Kata shrugged. "I only know that it is hidden here in Tokyo. We have our own modern day seals of Time, just like Stonehenge, the ancient Temple of the Time Master."

"And where would those be?" I glared at him. Tell me, no more beating around the bush.

"You don't even know?" he gave me an affronted look. "And you're going to save the world?"

I said two words with all the menace I could muster. Make no mistake – that is a lot of menace.

"Tell me."

He gave me an unimpressed look. "There are four large ones. The Clocktower of Wako Department Store," he said. "Or it could be somewhere along the Yamonate Railway line. The Rainbow Bridge is another and the last is Tokyo Tower."

"Tokyo... Tower."

He remembered Shadra mentioning something about it a long time ago... nah, just something about some manga. She was such an otaku.

"Yes," he said. "Plus there are loads of smaller ones. However, it is most likely at one of the four large ones."

"You don't know which one specifically," I said.

"No," Kata replied. "It was hard enough getting this much information. Some people just don't want just anyone getting their hands on an ancient magical device that could destroy the world as we know it."

I didn't reply to that. So, we had to search four locations, possibly more, all before Voltaire and Aries get there. Lovely. Still, if we managed to get to it before them, we could save ourselves a lot of grief.

Shadra, you've just always been a lot of trouble, haven't you?

_To be continued..._


End file.
